








TT TT TI ' TTT TT T TTTTTTTTTtTTTT ' 



Reports 

—COMPRISING— 

THE SURVEY OF THE 
COOK COUNTY JAIL 



Made By 

The Chicago Community Trust 

At The Request 
Of 

Board of Commissioners of Cook 
County. Illinois 



Director of the Survey: Db. Gbobge W. Kibchwb| , 

Formerly Dean of the 
Columbia University Law School 
New York City. 



' +++++++++++++++++++^4-+++++++++4-^+++'^+++Hf*+++++++++-K++»-+'i-++++-J-'l-+-f 




BookxC >4- Kl 

GPO (L^-tj^. "^— 



Reports 

—COMPRISING— 

THE SURVEY OF THE 
COOK COUNTY JAIL 



Made By 

The Chicago Community Trust 
n 

At The Request 
Of 

Board of Commissioners of Cook 
County. Illinois 



Director of the Survey: Dr. George W. Kirchwey, 

Formerly Dean of the 
Columbia University Law School 
New York City. 



Coys a 



UN 

.C4A1 



^ 



2_ 



Calumet Pubushivo Co , 9120 Biltim3re Ave 

CHICAGO 




Board of County Commissioners 



Daniel Ryan, President. 



Mrs. E. W. Bemis 
Bartley Burg 
William Busse 
Joseph M. Fitzgerald 
Charles H. Goodnow 
William H. Maclean 
Robert W. McKinlay 



George A. Miller 
Tom Murray 
Albert Nowak (deceased' 
Frederick W. Penfield 
Dudley D. Pierson 
Emmett Whealan 
Frank J. Wilson 



Citizens' Advisory Committee 

(ORIGINAL) 

Having to Do With the Proposed 
New Cook County Jail. 



Charles H. Wacker, Chairman 

Henry G. Foreman 

Prof. Robert H. Gault 

Mrs. Harry Hart 

Charles L. Hutchinson 

D. F. Kelly _ 



Minnie F. Low (deceased) 



«J3yt>*u.. -w 



Mrs. John MacMaiion 

Wilfred S. Reynolds 

Edwin W. Sims 

B. E. Sunny 

Miss Grace E. Temi-le 

Mjss.,Harriet E. Vittum 

WilliaPm Wrigley. Jr. 

i 

f 



The Chicago Community Trust 



Executive Committee 

Clifford W. Barnes, Chairman 

E. J. Buffington 

Charles S. Cutting 

Abel Davis 

Bernard A. Eckhart, Viee-Chairman 

Frank D. Loomi.?, Secretary 



Advisory Council 



J. Ogden Armour 
Orrin N. Carter 
James B. Forgan 
Albert W. Harris 
Edmund D. Hdlbert 
Morton D. Hull 



Charles H. Markham 
John J. Mitchell 
James A. Patten 
Frederick H. Rawson 
George M. Reynolds 
John G. Shedd 



Preambles and Resolution Adopted Unanimously by 

the Board of Commissioners of Cook County on 

Monday, January 16th, 1922 

WHEREAS, the Chairman of the. Citizens' Advisory Committee, as 
authorized at a recent meeting of that body and the members of the Board of 
Commissioners of Cook County, has appointed a Subcommittee on Site to 
suggest, after most careful inquiry, the most proper location for the proposed 
new County Jail and Criminal Court building, or buildings, and 

WHEREAS, this Subcommittee finds that it will be exceedingly difficult 
to arrive at such a recommendation until decision is made as to just what 
judicial and governmental agencies shall be housed in the projected new struc- 
ture, or structures; and 

WHEREAS, the question of just what classes of prisoners shall be there 
incarcerated also should be determined, along with the problem of whether or 
not other provision than now is afforded can be made for certain classes of 
prisoners; and 

WHEREAS, we are advised that the Chicago Community Trust is pre- 
pared to make, without any cost whatsoever to Cook County, a survey of the 
entire existing situation that might produce information and suggestions tend- 
ing to solve these problems; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, that the Board of Commissioners of Cook County invites 
the Chicago Community Trust to enter upon such a survey, and to report its 
findings and recommendations as soon as possible to the President of this 
Board, it being understood that this generous service will be rendered without 
any cost to the County of Cook. 



CONTENTS 



Reports 

Page 

General Survey and Recommendations, Dr. George W Kirchwey 13 

Cook County Jail, its Physical Characteristics and Living Conditions, Winthrop D. Lane 71 

Medical ar»d Health Conditions in the Cook County Jail, Dr. R. B. Preble and Dr. Joseph L. 

Miller .' . ' 93 

Food Conditions in the Cook County Jail, Special Committee on Jail Diet of the Chicago 

Dietetic Association 103 

Detention of the Woman Offender, Mrs. Kenneth F. Rich 110 

Relief of Overcrowding in the County Jail, John L. Whitman 151 

Jail Records and Reports, Mrs. Rich and Arthur L. Beeley 154 

Recent Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago, Edith Abbott, Ph. D., Associate Professor, 

University of Chicago; Statistician, City Council Committee on Crime, 1915 160 

Statistical tables, referred to in Dr. Kirchwey's report 185 

Statistical tables, referred to in Mrs. Rich's report 202 

Record forms, proposed in report of Mrs. Rich and Mr. Beeley 226 

Illustrations 

The "Bull-pen" in the "old" Jail ; 5 

A "Bull-pen" in the "new" Jail . ... 60 

Four prisoners sleeping in one cell 75 

Interior view of Hospital B in "old" Jail 98 

Just outside Hospital B, in "old" Jail 101 

"The noon-day meal" — Men prisoners are fed in their cells 105 

Women's quarters — Reading and recreation room 113 

Women's quarters — The dining room 123 

'i he clinic assists in social diagnosis — Municipal Detention Home for Women, Philadelphia. 139 

A cheerful recreation room for the younger girls — Municipal Detention Home for Women, 

Philadelphia 142 

Dormitory — Municipal Detention Home for Women, Philadelphia 144 

A substitute for jail idleness — Municipal Detention Home for Women, Philadelphia 148 



Diagrams 



Plan of the Jail Survey 16 

Graph showing fluctuation of Jail population, 1914 to 1922 21 



Chicago, Monday, July 17, 1922. 

To the Honorable, the Board of Commissioners 
op Cook County. 

Gentlemen: I transmit herewith the report of the survey of the Cook 
County Jail made by the Chicago Community Trust pursuant to the resolution 
adopted by your honorable body on January 16th, last. The report, which 
covers about 240 typewritten pages, is accompanied by a covering letter signed 
by the Hon. Bernard A. Eckhart, as vice-chairman of the Chicago Community 
Trust, and which I believe should be read. 

Your honorable body will wish, I assume, to refer this report to the Citi- 
zens' Advisory Committee having to do with the proposed new County Jail. 
But, as an initial step, the report should be printed. This is essential so that it 
may be available for study by members of this Board, as well as by members 
of the committee mentioned. Such publication probably will be desirable in 
the official proceedings of this Board, as well as in pamphlet or book form. 

I attach herewith a communication from Mr. Frank D. Loomis, Secretary 
of the Chicago Community Trust, outlining suggestions as to pamphlet or 
book publication. I would respectfully suggest that this phase of publication 
be referred to the Public Service Committee, but that meantime the report be 
ordered piinted as a whole in the proceedings of this meeting of your honorable 
body, and that you formally authorize reference of the same to the Citizens' 
Advisory Committee. 



Yours very truly, 



DANIEL RYAN, 

President. 



Chicago, July 10, 1922. 

To the Honorable, the Board of Commissioners 

of Cook County, Chicago, III. 

Gentlemen: Pursuant to your resolution of January 16, 1922, requesting 
the Chicago Community Trust to make a survey of the Cook County Jail with 
the view of securing information and suggestions tending to solve the various 
problems arising out of the project of providing a new place of detention in 
place of the present jail, we have the honor to report that, having formally 
accepted your proposal on February 1, 1922, we promptly entered into cor- 
respondence with leading experts in various parts of the country and on Feb- 
ruary 10, secured the services of Mr. George W. Kirchwey, of New York City, 
formerly Dean of the Columbia University Law School, as Director of the 
Survey. 

The report presented herewith has been prepared by various individuals 
under direction of Dr. Kirchwey and the general report summarizing all of the 
findings and presenting the general recommendations has been written by Dr. 
Kirchwey himself. In the entire course of the Survey he and his staff have had 
the friendly advice and assistance of specialists in this field. Earnest effort has 
been made to gather the real facts in the case. The Community Trust believes 
the work has been carefully and intelligently done. 

In presenting this report for your consideration the Community Trust 
call your attention to the specific recommendations contained in the report, 
which may be summarized as follows: 

1. The temporary expedients proposed for relieving the present over- 
crowding and disgraceful conditions in the county jail. 

2. The recommendations for a separate detention home for women. 

3. The recommendations for a separate detention home for boys. 

4. The recommendations relating to a Central House of Detention for 
men, as distinguished from the ordinary jail. 

We also recommend for consideration of the public at large the measures 
recommended in the report for restricting the jail population and reducing the 
period of detention. 

The Community Trust desires to express its cordial and sincere apprecia- 
tion of the co-operation of the many civic organizations and public spirited 
individuals whose contributions of service and advice have aided so materially 
in the furthering of this inquiry, and to express its thanks most earnestly to 
the County Commissioners and the members of Cook County's official family, 
including the Sheriff and his staff, and especially Capt. Wesley E. Westbrook, 
Warden of the County Jail, for the courtesies shown and assistance rendered. 

If the Community Trust can be of any further service to you in this matter 
please do not hesitate to call on us. 

Very truly yours, 

THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST 

Bernard A. Eckhart, 
Vice Chairman. 



THE COOK COUNTY JAIL 

A SURVEY 

By 

GEORGE W. KIRGHWEY 



The Cook County Jail Survey 

Statement of Plan of Survey 

This survey, undertaken by the Chicago Community Trust at the request 
of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, was determined in its plan and 
scope by the terms of the resolution authorizing it. 

This resolution, adopted by the Board on January 16, 1922, invited "a 
survey of the entire existing situation" involved in the proposal for the erec- 
tion of a new county jail and specified, as factors in that situation "the question 
of just what classes of prisoners shall be there incarcerated, along with the 
problem of whether or not other provision than is now afforded can be made 
for certain classes of prisoners." 

It was to be a new kind of inquiry, one that should go to the root of the 
jail problem. It was recognized that the problem was fundamentally a social 
one. It was this aspect of it, this opportunity to put the jail in its true relation 
to the interest of the entire community, that made the invitation of the County 
Board sufficiently attractive to the Chicago Community Trust and to those 
whose cooperation it invited, to induce them to undertake the task. 

Let me emphasize this point. The usual type of jail inquiry assumes a 
constant ratio between county and jail population and concerns itself almost 
wholly with such questions as the number, size and arrangement of cells and 
the location and architectural character of the building in which the cells are 
to be contained. Monumental jails of this character have recently been erected 
in several eastern cities of considerable size, structures that were obsolete before 
they were completed, which perpetuated all the rigidity, inflexibility and stu- 
pidty of the older buildings they had superseded. 

The newer type of inquiry, which sees in the jail a problem to be solved, 
considers first the population to be confined and the purpose of the confinement. 
Instead of accepting the existing state of affairs, it raises troublesome questions. 
It wonders why so many men and women, boys and girls, of whom one- third 
will never be brought to trial, or, if tried, will be found innocent, should have 
been subjected to the infamy of imprisonment. It wonders why these unfor- 
tunates, whether innocent or guilty, should have been confined for many 
months, before the question of their guilt or innocence should be determined. 
It wonders what, in fact, these people are, who, to the number of 10,000 a year, 
are compelled to live for weeks and months under the shocking conditions of 
the Cook County jail — • decent folk, for the most part, with a stake in the com- 
munity, or the off-scouring, the refuse-heap of a great city? 

Manifestly a survey of the scope of the one proposed could be accomplished 
only through the aid of a considerable body of expert workers and the coopera- 
tion of many interested civic bodies and public spirited individuals. This plan 
being adopted, the study at once took on the form of a community enterprise, 
as will appear from the list of cooperating committees and organizations set 
forth on the Plan of the Cook County Jail Survey which is given on the page 
following this statement. 

On this plan the organization of the survey and the distribution of the 
various studies of which it was composed are also indicated. As there appears, 

13. 



the Director of the Survey had as his immediate aids Mr. Frank D. Loomis, 
the Secretary of the Chicago Community Trust, Mrs. Kenneth F. Rich, the 
Director of the Bureau of Surveys and Exhibits and an Advisory Committee 
of experts, headed by Professor Robert H. Gault of Northwestern University. 

The research work, which resulted in the compilation of the mass of sta- 
tistical material appearing in this report, was directed by Mrs. Rich, who was 
aided by groups of graduate students from the two universities. 

A comprehensive study of the physical and living conditions of the present 
jail was made by Mr. Winthrop D. Lane, an accomplished penologist and stu- 
dent of jail conditions, of New York City. 

The problem of the detention of the woman offender was thoroughly 
studied by Mrs. Rich, with the assistance of a group of specially qualified 
women. 

A character study of the present jail population was made by Mr. A. L. 
Beeley, of the University of Chicago. 

The health and medical conditions of the jail were studied by two eminent 
physicians of this city, Dr. R. B. Preble and Dr. Joseph L. Miller, and the diet 
and food conditions by a committee of the Chicago Dietic Association, all of 
whom are experts in the feeding of the inmates of large institutions. 

The confused and intermittent character of the jail records, which proved 
a serious handicap in the efforts of the Survey to secure the needed statistical 
information for this report, suggested the desirability of devising a more sci- 
entific and practical system of record-keeping. Accordingly Mrs. Rich and 
Mr. Beeley made a study of the problem, which resulted in the submission of 
the set of forms given in this report. 

The obvious necessity of reducing the population confined in the present 
jail without waiting for the construction of a new jail, led to a study by Mr. 
John L. Whitman, the State Superintendent of Prisons and the present Acting- 
warden of the Penitentiary at Joliet, of the best methods of disposing of the 
surplus jail population. Mr. Whitman, , it will be remembered, commenced 
his remarkably successful career as a prison administrator as an official and 
subsequently as Warden of the present jail. 

The delays in the administration of criminal justice which are largely 
responsible for the congested condition of the county jail have been studied by 
a "Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice" of the Chicago Bar 
Association. 

Finally, supplementing Mrs. Rich's substantial study of the jail population, 
the survey has been fortunate enough to secure a valuable studj' of crime 
statistics in Chicago made by Professor Edith Abbott of Chicago University. 

But perhaps the final word of recognition should be to an individual whose 
contribution does not appear in the plan above outlined. This is Mr. Nels 
Anderson, a graduate student in Chicago University, who, with an exceptional 
background of experience, had himself committed to the jail for the purpose 
of making a study of its human elements. Mr. Anderson made excellent use of 
his two weeks of incarceration and has submitted a valuable report of his find- 
ings and impressions. 

All of these studies, with the exception of Mr. Anderson's, have been sub- 
mitted in the form of special reports, which are incorporated herein, and these, 

14 



together, constitute the material which I have digested and summarized in the 
following report, though they have, in every case, been verified and supple- 
mented by my personal observations. For this disinterested and highly efficient 
cooperation, and especially for the unfailing assistance rendered in every stage 
of the work by Mr. Frank D. Loomis and Mrs. Kenneth F. Rich of the Com- 
munity Trust, I desire to express my deep gratitude. 

June 30, 1922 George W. Kirchwey. 



o 

•ao 

cd 

o 
•i— i 

O 



> 

CO 






s 

o 
o 

if. 

c 

O 
r-H O 

>> m 
+-> 2 



CO 

3 

cu 

u 



3 

o 

o 

O ■£ 

O a 

O S 

5 I 



o 
cd 

EC 



H 
CO 

& 

K 

& 

s 
s 

o 
o 

o 
a 

o 

£ 
o 

w 

K 




.S 3 

is jC -c o 

= u u u 







CO 




^ s 


fco 


KO 


< J 


H . 


u a 


02 » 


a z 


oo <; 


OS 


h 



GO 


>> 


u 


> -. 


OS * 


D 2 


1/5 co« 


H 

DOS 


0S« 2 




u 


OS 




a 




CO >. 


w 


ft! J 


O W 


O U 


u m 


k j 


di 


2 X 


o o 


> 5 


Q • 


=> B 

CO 2 






§ Z 


£ s 


KZ h 


DO x 




O J J 


J?z 


a, 


00 x 

a s 



j _ 




oo U 


= 31 


>-z • 


a-o Q 


' o - 


>. a, 

ago 


2> s 


»J z 




JQ £ 


"2Z 


«3 


1 





O 




u 


Q 
Orfl 


<z 


t>z 


"en 


&*Q 


5« 


Qh 




z 


HO 


f-f- 


tdO 


?y 


Q 


5 a 









o 



00 




o 








P 


Tl 


00 


U 


< 


OS 


1- 


00 


00 


OS 


J 


s 






< 




-5 







1 


J 


4 


< 

u 

3B 


Jm 


^2 


H-J 


ais 


„P 


a.S 


°*3 


CD J 


IZ 




HO 


fcX 


JO 


O 


<• 


00^ 


u 


OS 


I 


Q 



Z 


~ H 


U f- 


2 O 


X CO 


S05 

o<X 

(/>2h 


"i 5 


f-Oa 


00 


m 00 


H co 


2 a 


00 



z 

a 

E- . 

00 >> 

>- W 

00 J 

n u 

5 u 

z ca 

o . 

jS 



£< 



Oh h 

rto uK 
<2 f-< 
« 5=° 

<- So 



I 1 



0J 





u 


■= U 


Q 


1 SHE 


7 


r"? » 3 


U 
U. 

u. 




n 






UjC «) 


z 


1- t- 


<■ 




? 


1-2,1 





S • S E 


z 




^ 


a 


< 


H 


c 


H 




5 


-J 


?. 


K 


O 

0J 


s 


>■ 


-0 


U 


h 








Q -Q< Ll ; 



SS5 



z 
o 

Ui 

LJ 
I- 

H 

S 

o 
o 

>- 

OS 

o 

in 

> 

< 



e E°"i 

S £ |s c 

" u {*>*; ** 

■* 3 3 ** 3 






«?T) 



- e-i 

^ o " « S 

< e'*- . 2 . 



CONTENTS 



1. The Problem of the County Jail 

1. The Problem Stated 

2. The Jail Population 

(1) General Considerations 

(2) Statistical Data 

(a) Sex 
(6) Color 

(c) Age 
Boys 

Young Men 
Older Groups 

(d) Previous Record 

(e) Disposition of Cases 
The Innocent 

The Guilty 
(/) Period of Confinement 
(g) Health Conditions 
(h) The Convict Group 
(8) Character of Jail Population 

(4) Morale of the Jail Population 

(5) Conclusions 

3. The Wide Open Intake 

( 1 ) The Police and the Jail Problem- 

(2) The Municipal Court and the Jail Problem 

(3) The State's Attorney and the Jail Problem 

(4) The Grand Jury and the Jail Problem 

(5) The Bail-Bond System Problem 

4. The Clogged Outlet 

(1) The Municipal Court 

(2) The Grand Jury 

(3) The Criminal Court 

(a) Organization 

(b) Jurisdiction 

(c) A Unified Court 

(d) Procedure 

(4) The State's Attorney 

(5) The Criminal Lawyer 

II. The Problem of Detention in Cook County 

1. The Question of Population 

2. The New Jail 

(/) Women's Detention Home 

17 



{2) Boys' Detention Home 

(3) Central House of Detention 

( 4 ) Criminal Court Building 

III. The Problem of the Old Jail 

1. Relief of Over-Crowding 

2. Improvement in Living Conditions 
Note: On Jail Records and Reports 



18 



THE COOK COUNTY JAIL 
A Survey 

By GEORGE W. KIRCHWEY 



1. THE PROBLEM OF THE COUNTY JAIL 

1. The Problem Stated 

The Cook County Jail is not a place of punishment. It is a place of deten- 
tion for persons, innocent and guilty, who are under suspicion of having com- 
mitted criminal offenses and who are unable to secure bail. Whatever the 
practice may be, that, at least, is the theory. This is the significant fact which 
furnishes the clue to any study of the jail problem. The question, therefore, 
is not, what is the approved or the socially desirable way in which to deal with 
convicted offenders, but a very different one, which may be put in this way: 
How far and in what ways may we rightfully restrain the liberty of those who 
have been accused of wrong-doing, until the question of their guilt or innocence 
has been lawfully determined? 

The convicted offender is properly at the mercy and justice of the com- 
munity; the accused person has a right to go about his own affairs, unmolested, 
except in so far as it may be necessary to restrain him in order to insure his 
appearance in court when wanted. The shoe is on the other foot. The burden 
of proof, of justification, is on the authorities for every day that such a person 
is unnecessarily confined, for every indignity or hardship that he is made to 
suffer while under confinement. 

The Cook County Jail is not the only one that has disregarded these 
elementary considerations of human and civic rights. The truth is that the 
County Jail is the very worst feature of the American penal system — worse 
than the workhouse, worse than the penitentiary: Worse because more neg- 
lected, and, therefore, filthier, viler, more degraded and demoralized. Taking 
the country over, it is the least human of American institutions. Foreign 
authorities speak of it as the greatest blot on our penal system. Sir Evelyn 
Ruggles-Brise, the Chairman of the English Prison Commission, who visited 
this country in connection with the International Prison Congress in 1910, 
found that our jails perpetuated many of the worst feature's of the jails of 
England and the continent which excited the reforming passion of John Howard 
in the 18th century. England has reformed her jails. Ours remain as they 
were. 

If one asks why this is so, the answer, in a word, is "politics." Half a 
century ago the English jails were the private preserves of the sheriffs and 
other local authorities, as ours are now. They were a source of what an emi- 
nent New York politician once characterized as "honest graft," a form of 
illicit profit, winked at, if not shared, by the dominant political powers and 
tolerated by an indifferent community — as ours, for the most part, still are. In 
1877 this whole vicious system was swept away in England by an act of Parlia- 
ment and the jails nationalized and put under the control of the central govern- 
ment. This may prove to be the only way out, here as well as there, but it 
should not be necessary. There must be enough civic virtue and intelligence 
in a great local community like this, by its own initiative and out of its own 






19 



resources, to maintain a wise and humane system of detention for those of its 
members who are accused of crime. It is in this faith that this survey of the 
Cook County Jail has been undertaken. 

But there is another and deeper reason why our American jail system 
stands unredeemed and that is the state of public opinion with respect to the 
jail population. The trouble is that we have stamped a criminal character 
on these places of detention by using them as a convenient dumping ground for 
the refuse of our society — the petty thieves, vagabonds, degenerates of all 
kinds by whom the byways of our cities and the highways of the country-side 
are infested. These are the "jail-birds," and this is "the jail," as it has come 
to be known. The stamp of low criminality thus put upon it has never been 
effaced, even where, as here in Chicago, a workhouse or Bridewell has been 
established in which to care for these petty offenders. Most of the 3000 county 
jails throughout the country still herd mdiscriminately together the hobo, the 
convicted bootlegger, the drug addict, the petty crook who has spent a life- 
time in such institutions, with boys having the bloom of innocence still on 
them and with professional thieves who are held for trial for new offenses. The 
Cook County Jail, with all these types within its walls, has just enough con- 
victed offenders to keep alive the evil tradition that a jail is a place of punish- 
ment. Being a place of punishment for a few, it becomes and remains a place 
of punishment for all, irrespective of age, or guilt, or breeding, or character. 
It is a true democracy, with equally degrading conditions for all. 

To these conditions, common to all, or nearly all, jails, the jail of Cook 
County has added a condition of overcrowding so serious as to intensify all 
the evils of the common jail and add new and more menacing ones. This is 
not a new situation for our jail to be in. It is, indeed, chronic. The older part 
of the present jail, erected in 1874 with individual cells for 136 persons, had by 
1890 become so congested with four and often five prisoners to a cell, that public 
opinion forced the erection of the addition now known as the "New Jail," in 
1894-95. The 180 cells thus added to the capacity of the jail were all filled 
from the overflow of the old jail and the vicious "doubling-up" process began 
at once. It is now fashionable to measure the normal capacity of the jail by 
multiplying the number of cells by two; but this is absurd. No sane person 
builds cells for two persons. There are reasons for this which need not be gone 
into here but which every jail-builder knows. 

Thus the extraordinary growth of the city in population promptly nullified 
the efforts of the jail-builders and, it may be suspected, exhausted the interest 
of the community in a problem which had come to seem insoluble. The public 
interest, which had secured the enlargement of the jail in 1894. slept peacefully 
through the 20 years ensuing until the jail, with a normal capacity of 300. 
had a daily population of from 504 to 735.(1) In the intervening period of 
seven years, during which the electors of Cook County have four times voted 
down proposals for bond issues for a new jail, the daily population has further 
increased to the number of from 690 to 1013. While the maximum of 1000 and 
upwards was reached only ten days in the year 1921, there were 72 days when 
the population went above 950; 112 days when it exceeded 900; 195 days when 
it stood above 850; 293 days when it numbered upwards of 750; and 359 days 



(1) Of the total number of 316 cells. 36 arc used for i he women prisoners and 10 for sen ice requirements, thus 
leaving 2C>4 cells available for tin- confinement of (he male population. 

20 




o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


O) 


oo 


r- 


CD 



o 
o 



o 
o 



O 

o 



O O 

O 



•twr 



21 



when it went above 700. The minimum (690-699) was reached on only six 
days in July. Measured in terms of jail-life, what this means is that, when 
the population was at its lowest ebb, not less than 140 cells had three men in 
them, that for eight months of the year every one of the 264 cells had at least 
three inmates, and that for over six months four men were crowded into from 
50 to 220 cells. In practice, of course, things didn't work out as smoothly as 
this. Some of the cells are necessarily reserved for single individuals — psycho- 
pathic cases or segregated cases of venereal disease — and it is this that neces- 
sitated the grotesque situation of herding five men in some cells at the height 
of the season last winter, (i) 

It must be borne in mind that the statistics of daily population do not 
begin to measure the extent of the evil which results from these conditions of 
overcrowding. This can be better appreciated when it is understood that the 
jail population is a fluid one and that in 1921 as many as 10,642 men and women, 
boys and girls were subjected to these intolerable conditions for varying periods 
of weeks or months as the case might be. This represents the crest of the 
advancing tide thus far. If it should be thought that conditions have been 
exceptional during the past year of wide spread unemployment, it is only 
necessary to point to the figures of the annual jail population during the pre- 
ceding era of war-time prosperity. Running back from the year 1921, the 
totals have been as follows: 1920, 8759; 1919, 8618; 1916, 9020; and 1914, 
9657.(2) 

What these conditions of overcrowding in the cells and bull-pens of the 
jail mean to the men and boys subjected to them are so fully set forth in the 
report of Winthrop D. Lane, Drs. R. B. Preble and Joseph L. Miller and 
John L. Whitman that they need not be recapitulated here. It might be said, 
indeed, that they have become so well known in general that no further reference 
to them is necessary. But while this is doubtless true of the authorities upon 
whom the responsibility directly rests, such as the County Board and the 
Sheriff, it is not at all certain that the community at large is sufficiently in- 
formed to have the alert sense of responsibility and that unalterable determina- 
tion to abate the nuisance which are essential to the success of the present 
movement. 

For this reason is has been deemed desirable to make a description of the jail 
and its living conditions a part of this report. The method employed has been the 
same as that set forth by a recent English writer who tells us that when John 
Howard set out to reform the gaols of eighteen th-century England, he con- 
vinced members of Parliament because he poured out, not a hot stream of 
denunciation, but a cold stream of statistics. "Instead of a sensational de- 
nunciation of oppression and cruelty, disease and promiscuity. Howard laid 
before the committee a detailed statement ... of the exact fees 
taken by the gaolers, the cubic contents, window-space or depth below ground 
of each apartment, the number, sex, age, and grade of the prisoners confined 
together or apart, the exact kind of chain or irons used, the amount and quality 



(1) Tabic A-i, at the end of this report, gives the daily population for the four years, 1017-21. The graphic chart 
paze 211 represents the rise and fall of population as recorded on the first Monday of each month from January 

1914 to March, 1922. 

(2) Table A-2 gives the figures by years during this period as far as obtainable. 



of the food (or the absence of food) of the prisoners, and the state of the sewers 
and the water-supply." (1) 

Apart from the reference to chains and irons and to the underground 
dungeons, Howard's description of the English gaols might almost be repro- 
duced in the account of the Cook County jail at the piesent time. There is the 
same disease-breeding filth and promiscuity, the same forced association of the 
young with the old, the clean-minded with the vicious and depraved; the same 
demoralizing idleness, the same neglect of the ordinary decencies of life. But 
to say these things is only to repeat in a feebler way what has been said in 
language of eloquent denunciation by successive grand juries of Cook County 
in the reports of their official inspections during the last dozen years and by 
President Daniel Ryan and his recent predecessors of the Board of County 
Commissioners. (2) 

2. The Jail Population 

(1) General Considerations 

Apart from the popular inertia or indifference which allows a situation 
to grow from bad to worse until it cracks (and the recent "riot" and other dis- 
turbances in the jail show only too clearly that the cracking point has been 
reached there), the perpetuation of these hoary abuses is doubtless due to 
serious misconceptions as to the character of the jail population. Having been 
taken up and committed to jail on a criminal charge, these subjects are assumed 
to be criminals and, being criminals, to be, all alike, desperadoes of the Tom 
O'Connor type. All jailed persons look alike to the ordinary virtuous citizen 
and all look equally dangerous. It is curious how the mere fact of a man's being 
admitted to bail operates as a suspension, or even a reversal, of this harsh 
judgment. In that case the legal presumption that a man is innocent until 
proven guilty is also the popular presumption, and this, notwithstanding the 
fact that in nearly all the cases (all in fact but cases of murder, which are very 
few in number) the only difference between the bailed and the jailed offender 
is that one had money enough to procure a bail-bond which the other lacked. 
Doubtless the character of the jail and the nature of the treatment to which the 
inmates are subjected have a good deal to do with this irrational attitude on 
the part of the public. Being subjected to the punishment of criminals and 
accepting that punishment, they are naturally taken to be criminals. When 
the breaking point is reached and a few of the prisoners rebel against this prison 
treatment, we have what the newspapers described as a "riot" and there is a 
beating-up of the offenders and a swift confirmation of the popular view as to 
the dangerous character of the jail population. 

As a matter of fact the inmates of the jail differ as widely among them- 
selves in character as they do in race or religion or occupation or in the color of 
their- hair or eyes. As Mr. Lane points out, the only things they have in com- 
mon are that they are awaiting their day in court and that they are too poor 



(1) English Prisons Under Local Government, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, London, 1922. 

(2) See statement of Grand Jury, June 2, 1921: Annual Message of President of the Board of County Com- 
missioners, 1921. 

23 



and friendless to secure bail. There are among them "bad" boys of 13, 14 and 
15, held on charges of disorderly conduct, speeding or larceny, along with 
offenders of 50 and upwards charged with murder, rape, robbery and crimes 
against children; auto operators accused of intoxication or plain citizens charged 
with resisting an officer, along with confidence men and pickpockets. Of the 
total number held, a large number (anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent) are await- 
ing the disposition of their cases in the Municipal Court for all sorts of petty 
offenses, ranging from the more serious misdemeanors to the violation of city 
ordinances. Of the women, less than half are held on felony charges. And 
finally, to add to his riot of confused impressions, there are, with this vast 
majority of people held on unproven charges, a small but significant number of 
convicted offenders who have been committed to the jail to serve short sentences 
for minor offenses. 

It is an incongrous company. Many of them are keen, alert, intelligent, 
humorous, kindly; a few are dull, sodden, with fishy eyes and the hang-dog 
look which jail life breeds. Take them out of jail into the busy street, and, but 
for the predonerance of males, they would be but an average section of hu- 
manity, such as we pass and brush by during the crowded hours in the "Loop." 
It seems a safe guess that their characters vary as much as do those of the 
average city crowd. Perhaps more of them are guilty of crime than is the case 
in an equal number of men and women in the street, but that remains to be seen. 
They haven't been tried yet. 

(2) Statistical Data 

Statistical information regarding the jail population for the period subse- 
quent to the investigation made by the City Crime Committee, that is to say 
from 1914 to 1921, inclusive, and covering such facts as the sex, color, age, 
offense charged and final disposition of cases, is given in tables annexed to this 
report. It may be well to call attention here to the more significant facts 
thus disclosed. 

(a) Sex 

Women and girls constitute a relatively small element in the annual jail 
population, ranging from 4.5 to 8.1 per cent of the total. The number involved 
is, however, considerable — 478 in 1921, 424 in 1920, 540 in 1919, rising 
to 730 in 1916 and to 635 in 1914.(1) It has not been possible to secure the 
figures for the intervening years (1915, 1917 and 1918) but, assuming the 
average of the five years given to have been maintained throughout the period 
of eight years, we have a total of 4488 women and girls who, during that time. 
for weeks or months, perhaps for many months at a stretch, lived the kind of life 
that the Cook County jail affords. What this means, how barren and demoraliz- 
ing that life is, how far short it falls of the possibilities of reconstructive treat- 
ment for the girls and women involved in this web of delinquency has been 
convincingly set forth in the report of Mrs. Kenneth F. Rich on the detention 
of the woman offender, which is appended to this report. 

(b) Color 

The colored population is also a relatively small element, certainly not enough 



(1) Table A-2. 

24 



to constitute it a separate problem. Its number in the period under considera- 
tion ranged from 1212 in 1914 to 1866 in 1921, or from 12.5 to 17.5 per cent of 
the annual population. For the most part the colored prisoners occupy separ- 
ate tiers of cells and use separate bull-pens, but there is no evidence of any 
official discrimination against them and they are no more miserable and dis- 
contented than the white prisoners. Their quarters are as bad and their food 
and medical care no worse. (i) 

(c) Age 
It is when we come to analyze the age statistics of the jail population that 
our real problem comes into view. It is a commonplace that criminality is 
a malady of youth, a fact which is demonstrated by the comparative infre- 
quency of old convicts in a prison population. The recklessness and lack of 
sense of social responsibility characteristic of boyhood are too often, through 
want of judicious restraint and guidance or because of retarded development, 
carried on through the turbulent years of adolescence and beyond. So we 
need not be surprised, though we may well be appalled, by the large proportion 
of boys and young men who are held in jail to await trial on criminal charges. ( i) 

Boys 

Of the 10,642 persons confined in the Cook County jail last year, 2214 or 
20.8 per cent were boys in the accepted sense of that term, having been undei 
21 years of age. In 1920 the number was 24.2 per cent (2119 out of 8759) and 
in 1919 it was 25.5 per cent (2197 out of 8618). The lowest percentage reached, 
17.6 per cent, was in 1914 (1703 out of 9657) and the next lowest in 1916, 17.8 
per cent (1609 out of 9020). 

Of the boys held in 1921 as many as 82 were of Juvenile Court age — one 
being only 13, two 14, eight 15 and the rest (71) 16 years old. It does not 
appear who was responsible for committing a boy of 13 to the county jail 
for "safe keeping," or two boys of 14 for "disorderly conduct" and "larceny," 
respectively. The offenses charged against the others, who were 15 and 16 
years of age, covered a wide range from one case of murder (age 15) to 17 of 
burglary and 19 of larceny. Ten of them had nothing against them but "dis- 
orderly conduct. "(2) 

The offenses charged against the whole group of boys under 21 run the 
entire gamut from the technical violation of a municipal ordinance to the most 
serious crimes. Totals vary in the jail records, but of the 2134 reported for the 
calendar year, 1921, cases of larceny ranked first with 512, or 24 per cent; 
burglary next, with 455, or 21.3 per cent, and robbery next, with 296 or 13.8 
per cent. Murder claimed 13, assault to kill, 15; and rape, 28. By far the 
largest single item is the aggregate compounded of misdemeanors and "mis- 
cellaneous," numbering 632 and amounting to 30 per cent of all offenses 
charged. (3) 

It is a significant fact that the boys are relatively more frequently held for 
larceny, robbery and burglary than are the more mature offenders, the ratio 
for the adult jail population in 1921 with respect to those crimes being 14 



(1) Table A-2. 

(2) Table A-3. 

(3) Table A-4. 



per cent for larceny (boys 24), 9.4 per cent for burglary (boys 21.3), and 9.1 
per cent for robbery (boys 13.8). Or, to put it in another way, the boys of 20 
and under, while constituting, in 1921, say, one-fifth (20.8) per cent) of the 
total jail population, represented 36 per cent of the burglaries, 27.2 per cent of 
the robberies and 34 per cent of the larcenies charged; in 1920, being 24.2 per 
cent of the total population, they were again charged with 36 per cent of the 
burglaries, with 32.2 per cent of the robberies and 34 per cent of the larcencies; 
in 1916, when they represented only 17.6 per cent of the total number in the 
jail, their record of charges was as follows: Burglary 33.4 per cent; robbery 
30 per cent; and larceny 24 per cent; in 1914, being 16.3 per cent of the popu- 
lation, the record reads: Burglary 35 per cent; robbery 23.5 per cent; larceny 
19.2 per cent. 

Appalling as these figures are, they give clear indications as to the real 
nature of the jail problem. While many of those boys may be innocent of the 
offenses charged, they are, most of them, in the twilight zone which borders 
on the criminal life. Thrown into intimate contact with older and more hard- 
ened offenders, left to the drift of circumstance without let or hindrance, dis- 
couraged and embittered by the treatment they receive at the hands of the 
authorities, with nothing done or attempted to fire them with new resolution 
or endow them with new strength for the struggle before them, the com- 
mitment to jail is in many cases only a sentence to a life of crime. 

In concluding this record of the boys in jail, let it be noted, as a mitigating 
fact, that the contribution of the boys to the more serious charges of murder 
and assault to kill is relatively insignificant. Only one-half of one per cent 
of the boys are held on the charge of murder, while 1.7 per cent of the adults 
are charged with that crime. For assault to kill the percentages are .06 and 
2.7 respectively. 

Young Men 

By far the largest of the age-groups in the jail is made up of older boys and 
young men, ranging in age from 21 to 30 years. These numbered 4337 in 1921, 
being 40.8 per cent of the total population for that year, while in 1914 they 
reached the figure of 4517, 46.8 per cent of the total for one year. In the inter- 
vening period the number of this group ranged from 39.5 to 44.2 per cent, thus 
indicating that it was a constant, as well as an important factor numerically in 
the jail population. ( i ) 

It is not too much to say that in this group, by virtue of its youth, as well 
as its size, we have the crux of the jail problem. Numbering well on toward 
half of the entire jail population (together with the boys under 21, they make 
up 62 per cent of the whole) , they yet belong to the class which in most of our 
States is regarded as reformable and for whom specialized institutions of a 
reformatory character are provided. It has not been possible to ascertain from 
the jail records how the numbers run in the ages between 21 and 30, but it is 
estimated that a clear majority of them are under 25. As we shall see hereafter 
a large proportion will ultimately be discharged for lack of evidence against 
them or will be found not guilty of the offenses charged. Many of them are 
innocent of any wrong doing and most of those that will be found guilty are 
first offenders. It is upon such as these, as well as upon the boys under 21, 
that the blight of jail life falls most disastrously. If the jail is not a prison for 



(1) Table A-2. 

26 



criminals, it is certainly the gateway to the criminal life. This is the place, in this 
motley gathering of the innocent and the depraved, where virtue is tarnished 
and vicious tendencies confirmed, and it is here that the opportunity presents 
itself, for the last time perhaps, to turn back this tide of human derelicts into 
the ways of decent and honorable living. 

Older Groups 

The remaining age groups in the jail population can be summarily disposed 
of. The records arrange them by decades. Those 31 to 40 years of age; those 
from 41 to 50, and those over 50. ( i) The last are a pathetic but otherwise un- 
important element, constituting, as they do, only four or five per cent of the 
annual population. They reached their maximum of 514 last year. The 41-50 
group is also inconsiderable in size, ranging in recent years from 8.8 to 11.7 per 
cent of the total population. Its maximum was attained in 1921 (1035) and in 
1918 (1056). The remaining group of 31 to 40 years of age is of considerable 
size, having reached its highest point, 2534, 23 per cent of the total population, 
in 1921. During the immediately preceding years it has varied from 1901 in 
1916, to 2100 in 1914. There is nothing distinctive about this part of the pri- 
son population except its greater maturity. Like the other groups it is made 
up of all sorts and conditions of men and women. Whether innocent or guilty, 
decent or vicious, they have, for the most part, found themselves. Under 
proper conditions of living, whether in jail or outside, they can usually be 
trusted to choose their own friends and companions. Special protection, such 
as may be demanded for women and girls and for boys and young men of im- 
pressionable years, is not obviously required for these more mature characters, 
except in cases where mental or physical defects or disease puts them in the 
dependent class of jail inmates. 

(d) Previous Record 

There is nothing more important in a study of this kind than the previous 
criminal record of those against whom charges of delinquency are pending, and, 
so far as the population of the Cook County Jail is concerned, there is nothing 
harder to get at. The only source of information on this point is the state- 
ment made by those committed on entering the jail, the lack of finger-print 
records or of any systematic method of identification making it impossible to 
verify these statements. In the few cases where court records exist, no attempt 
is made by the jail authorities to utilize them. The "frequency" figures taken 
from the jail records, must, therefore, be taken with more than a grain of 
allowance. ( 2) 

It is of importance to note, however, that the term "offender," as here 
employed, signifies "arrested," not "convicted." A first offender is one who 
has never been in trouble before; a second offender, one who has once been 
arrested. A "second offender" may, therefore, be one who is twice innocent. 

From the reports thus obtained, it appears that those claiming to be first 
offenders outnumber all the others combined, the ratio varying widely from 
71.9 per cent in 1914 to 54.8 per cent in 1916, and from 50 per cent in 1919, to 
62.3 in 1920. In 1921 the number was 5969 out of a total population of 10,638, 



(1) Table A-2. 

(2) Table A-4. 



or 59 per cent. In the same year, the second offenders numbered 2660, or 25.3 
per cent of the total population, while in 1914 these were only 14.3 per cent and 
in 1920, 13.5 of the whole. 

Third and more frequent offenders aggregated 2009 in 1921, 18.9 per cent 
of the jail population, and varied from 13.8 per cent in 1914 to 23.4 in 1916; 
24.9 in 1919, and 24.2 in 1920. 

There is a certain corroboration of these figures in the fact that they show the 
largest proportion of first offenders as occuring in the years of acute industrial 
depression and unemployment (1914 and 1920-21), where we should expect to 
find them. 

In the matter of previous arrests the women show up better than the men, 
323 out of 479, or 67.5 per cent, being registered as arrested for the first time in 
1921, 359 out of 540, or 66.5 per cent, in 1919, 61.3 per cent in 1916 and 69 
per cent in 1914. 

The figures for boys under 21 show a greater variation, the percentage of 
first offenders ranging from 50 in 1919, to 60 in 1921, and 74 in 1914. ( i) It seems 
probable that in this case, as in that of the general jail population, the coinci- 
dence of hard times with high prices is chiefly responsible for the marked in- 
crease in the percentage of first offenders in the year 1914-1915, and 1920-1921. 

For the younger boys of juvenile court age, in the jail, only the figures for 
1921 are available. ( 2) These indicate that, of the total number of 82, 62, or 
75.6 per cent, had never previously been arrested, and 15, or 18.3 per cent, had 
once before been in trouble. Two boys, both 15 years of age, confessed to two 
previous arrests and two more, of the same age, to three previous arrests. 

The mental picture of the jail population that we are gradually building 
up necessitates our viewing it from many angles. Here is a view not to be 
neglected when we come to sum up our impressions: A thousand boys and girls, 
youths of both sexes, men and women, a large proportion of whom, possibly 60 to 
75 per cent, have never been in trouble before. 

(e) Disposition Of Cases 

The Innocent 

It is when we come to statistics of the disposition made of jail cases that 
the real tragedy of the situation is disclosed. More than one-third of this mass 
of unfortunates, after weeks and months of the unwholesome and degrading 
contacts and the unspeakable living conditions of the jail, are found to have 
been innocent of the offenses charged. There is "nothing against them," nothing 
at least that justifies a verdict of "guilty," in many cases nothing to justify 
bringing them to trial. There are no records which make it possible to give 
accurate figures by years, but a study of the population of a given date( 3) shows 
that of the 807 inmates of the jail on December 1, 1920, 139 were discharged 
without trial; 122 were brought to trial and found not guilty, while 464 were 
tried and found guilty. The other 82 disappeared from the record, and must 
therefore be disregarded. Eliminating these, we have the fact that 261 of the 



(1) Tables A-5 and 6. 

(2) Tables A-6 and 7. 

(3) Tables A-9 and 10. 



28 



men and women in jail on that date, 36 per cent of the total number, made 
good the legal presumption of their innocence. Assuming that the same ratio 
holds approximately for the annual population, it would appear that of the 
10,642 men and women who are held for longer or shorter periods in the jail 
during the year 1921, no less than 3800 were presumably innocent of the offenses 
with which they were charged. 

Other records give equally striking results. In the table of jail cases dis- 
posed of, covering the years 1914, 1916 and 1921, (i) we find that out of 2241 
held in jail for the Criminal Court in 1914, 479, or 21.4 per cent, were refused 
indictment, 319 or 14.2 per cent were discharged without trial and 273, or 12.2 
per cent, tried and found not guilty; a total of 1071, 47.8 per cent, whose ordeal 
of imprisonment was a futile sacrifice on the altar of justice. 

Coming down to 1921, we find that of 2639 similarly held, the record was as 
follows: 

No bill 144 5 . 5 per cent 

Discharged without trial 426 16 . 1 per cent 

Tried and acquitted 266 10 per cent 

836 31.6 per cent 

Of those brought to trial, the percentage acquitted varies in the four years, 
from 9 per cent in 1919, to 14.2 per cent in 1914; 10.5 pei cent in 1916, and 
12.4 per cent in 1921. There is a tendency to place the responsibility for this 
discrepancy between indictments and convictions on the trial jury. The imper- 
fections of the jury system are too well-known to be ignored in any attempt to 
assess this responsibility. It might be well, however, to inquire how cautiously 
the grand jury performs its task of finding indictments and how competently the 
case is presented to the court and jury on the trial. 

The Guilty 
A tabulation of the case brought to trial, in the years 1914, 1916, 1919 and 
1921, shows the following disposition of those brought to trial and found 
guilty: 

1914 1916 1919 1921 



Total 1649 1438 1607 1803 

Committed to County Jail 297 204 412 283 

House of Correction 454 380 285 482 

Joliet Penitentiary 437 321 297 365 

Pontiac Reformatory .... 131 242 237 286 

Chester 6 5 8 12 

Elgin 1 1 

Kankakee 1 ... 2 6 

Lincoln ... ... 3 

Dunning ... ... 1 

Executed ... 5 5 11 

Placed on Probation 323 286 360 353 



(1) Table A-ll. 

29 



The percentage of convictions is singularly uniform, being 17.4, 16.1, 18.4 
and 17.1 for the four years respectively, and the same may be said of the dis- 
tribution of those convicted among the several institutions provided for the 
various types of offenders. Thus, Joliet, which in 1914, received 33 per cent 
of all those committed to institutions, got 27.9 per cent in 1916, 28.5 per cent 
in 1919, and 25 per cent, the lowest percentage reached in recent years, in 1921. 
The receipts of the Reformatory, on the other hand, have gone up from 9.9 
per cent in 1914, to 16.8 in 1916, 14.7 in 1919 and 15.8 in 1921. 

The ratio of releases on probation has, it would appear, not been appreciably 
affected by the drive which has recently been made on that imperfect but hope- 
ful instrumentality of justice. The record shows that the percentage of those 
convicted who are placed on probation has varied within narrow limits from 
19.6 in 1914 and again in 1921, to 20 in 1916 and 22.4 in 1919. 

(f) Period or Confinement 

The same table that gives the details of the disposition of the 807 cases 
held on December 1st, 1920, gives also the approximate time that they lay in 
jail. It there appears that, of the 85 whose cases were dismissed without 
being brought to trial, only ten were confined less than a month and only 24 
less than two months. Forty, or 47 per cent, were in jail over 100 days, and 
23, or 27 per cent, from 150 to 300 days. 

Of 56 brought to trial and acquitted, only two were confined less than a 
month and only 14 less than two months. Twenty-two, or 40 per cent, were 
detained over 100 days and 6, or 10.7 per cent, from 150 days to more than a 
year. 

Of 404 brought to trial and convicted, only 10 were held less than a month, 
and only 80 less than two months. Two hundred and three, over 50 per cent, 
were confined over 100 days; 122, or 30 per cent, over 150 days; 79, or 19.5 per 
cent, over 200 days; 51, or 12.6 per cent over 300 days, and 15 over 400 days. 

Other tables, seek to place the responsibility for these delays. From these 
it appears that of the 587 cases awaiting trial in the jail on December 1, 1920, 
437 were under indictment awaiting action by the Griminal Court; 94 by the 
Municipal Court and 56 by the United States Court. The Federal Court 
disposed of 12.5 per cent of its cases within ten days, and 43 per cent within the 
first month. As many as 29, however, 50 per cent of the whole number, hung on 
for from two to six months. 

The Municipal Court cleaned up 84 per cent of its cases within 30 days 
(54 per cent in the first ten days), leaving only a few stragglers to linger on 
through the ensuing six months. 

The period of waiting for trial in the Criminal Court is reckoned from the 
date of the indictment, for which in most cases the prisoner has been waiting 
in jail. Of the 437 cases awaiting action by that court, one was disposed of 
within ten days, six more under 20 days and a total of 19, or 4.3 per cent, in 
the first month. In the course of the second month 150 more were taken care of, 
making a total of 41 per cent. There are now 268 Criminal Court prisoners who 
have been in jail two months since their indictment. Ninety-eight of these are 
disposed of in the third month, leaving 170 with three months imprisonment 
behind them and an indefinite number of weeks or months still ahead. At the 

30 



end of the fourth month there are still 98 waiting, 22.4 per cent of the original 
number. At the end of the fifth month, 79; at the end of the sixth month 54; 
and so on. At the end of the ninth month there are still 30, and at the end 
of the year perhaps a dozen or fifteen. The Clerk of the jail gives a list of ten 
men, now or very recently in the jail, whose period of detention has run from 
15 to 18 months. 

All of this comes, in most cases, on top of a period of waiting for the grand 
jury to act. This has added on the average anywhere from 10 to 40 days to the 
total period of confinement. ( i) Of the 489 members of our group who were 
held for the grand jury, 184, or nearly 40 per cent, were disposed of within two 
weeks, and 229, or 48.5 per cent more, by the end of the first month. At the 
end of the second month all but a dozen had been indicted or freed by the 
grand jury. This is a record that in point of speed shines by comparison with 
that of the Criminal Court, but, when it is viewed in connection with the fact 
that of the 489 passed upon only 20 were refused indictment and that of those 
indicted 94 were never brought to trial (60 nolle prossed and 34 stricken from 
the calendar of the court) and 66 tried and acquitted, one wonders now much 
independent and serious consideration the grand jury gives to the cases sub- 
mitted to it by the State's Attorney. 

(g) Health Conditions 

On the important question of the physical and mental conditions affecting 
the jail population we have little or no trustworthy information. The Medical 
Report which forms a part of this survey calls attention to the superficial 
character of the examinations to which incoming prisoners are subjected at the 
jail and to the total lack of any subsequent examination of those confined. For 
this reason little space will be devoted to any analysis of the physical record 
from the County jail reports. (2) But if the medical examinations are super- 
ficial, when they are not entirely lacking, what opinion can we form of the 
health of a jail population which even under those conditions of professional 
neglect is found to have 5428 cases of physical disease among 10642 inmates. 
How much more a real clinical examination would disclose, we can only guess, 
but we need have no hesitation in assuming that the figures relating to the oc- 
curence of tuberculosis and venereal disease are far too low, certainly for the 
last three years. The figures given are as follows: For tuberculosis in 1919, 
120 in a population of 8618; in 1920, 127 in a population of 8759, and in 1921, 
70 in a population of 10642; for syphilis the figures for the three years are 
86,124 and 152, respectively; for gonorrhea they are 286, 283 and 301 respec- 
tively. 

But it is in the total lack of any information as to the mental condition 
of the inmates from year to year that the jail reports are most seriously defective, 
and it is unfortunate that neither from the police nor from the courts do we get 
any light on the character of the jail population in this important particular. 
We know from studies elsewhere made that a large proportion of the criminal 
population is made up of the mentally defective and diseased and we have 
learned that there is in many cases an intimate correlation between mental 



(1) Table A-13. 

(2) Table A-14. 



31 



defect or psychopathic instability and criminality. But this new knowledge, 
so necessary for the proper classification and handling of a delinquent group, 
as necessary in a jail as in a penitentiary, has been treated by our jail authori- 
ties as though it did not exist. 

The importance of this phase of our study of the jail population seems to 
justify a brief recapitulation of the results reached in recent studies made in a 
variety of correctional institutions. A psychiatric clinic was established in 
Sing Sing prison in 1916, having been made possible by the financial support 
given by the Rockfeller Foundation to the National Committee for Mental 
Hygiene. Dr. Bernard Glueck, the director of the clinic, found in the first ni^e 
months of its existence that, of 608 adult prisoners admitted to Sing Sing prison 
within the period of nine months, 66.8 per cent were individuals who had shown 
throughout life a tendency to behave in a manner at variance with the behaviour 
of the average normal person, and that this deviation from normal behaviour 
had repeatedly manifested itself in a criminal act; 59 per cent of this series of 
608 cases showed demonstrable deviation from the average normal mental 
health; 28.1 per cent possessed a degree ot intelligence equivalent to that of 
the average American child of 12 years or under; 18.9 per cent were so const i- 
tionally inferior or psychopathic as to have rendered extremely difficult, if 
not impossible, adaptation to the ordinary requirements of life in modern 
society; 12 per cent were found to be suffering from distinct mental diseases or 
deterioration . A similar study carried on at Auburn Prison, New York, showed 
61.7 per cent of the cases studied to be abnormal mentally; at the Indiana State 
Prison, 45 per cent; at the Massachusetts State Prison, 34.9 per cent; at the 
New York State Reformatory, Elmira, 58 per cent; at the Massachusetts State 
Reformatory for Men, 59 per cent; at the Massachusetts State Reformatory for 
Women, 63 per cent; at the House of Correction, Holmesburg, Penna., 69 
per cent; at the Western House of Refuge for Women, Albion, N. Y., 82.1 per 
cent; at the Westchester County Penitentiary, New York, 57 per cent; at the 
United State Naval Prison, Portsmouth, N. H., 66 per cent. 

These statistics of abnormality of delinquent groups carry a plain implica- 
tion for those who are concerned with the problem of the proper housing and 
treatment of a jail population. There is no reason to doubt that a similar study 
of the inmates of our county jail would produce substantially similar results. 
While many of these are in fact innocent of the offenses charged against them, 
a large proportion of them spring from families and social groups that are the 
seed beds of delinquency. The fact that they are in jail is at least presumptive 
evidence that they lack the qualities essential to success in the struggle for 
existence. They have not "made good" and the reason for the failure must, in. 
part at least, be looked for in the undisclosed factors of their personality. 

(h) The Convict Group 

Reference has elsewhere been made to the fact that, in addition to its 
normal function as a place of detention for men and women awaiting trial, the 
County jail is also used as a place of punishment for convicted offenders. Most 
such offenders, if not placed on probation, are, in case of serious crimes, com- 
mitted to the State Penitentiary at Joliet or to the State Reformatory at 
Pontiac; in the case of misdemeanors, the usual disposition in Chicago is to 

32 



commit the offenders to the House of Correction. But, though the House of 
Correction has many empty cells for both men and women, the courts continue 
to commit many such offenders to the overcrowded, unwholesome cells of the 
jail. In a few instances no other course appears to be open to them without 
legislative action, as in the case of federal prisoners who, by arrangement with 
the Department of Justice at Washington, can be sent for punishment only to 
the county jail. So there are a few fraudulent debtors who are not entitled to 
claim the hospitality of the workhouse and a few more who are committed by 
the Judges for contempt of court. 

But all these together make up but a small part of the hundreds who are 
annually sentenced to terms of imprisonment in the jail. The number of these 
has shown considerable variation in the period of nine years (1913-1921) for 
which records of a sort are available, (i) themimimum of 105 appearing to have 
been reached in 1916, and the maximum of 380 in 1917. The total reported in 
1918 was 296; in 1919, 221; in 1920, 370; in 1921, 290. The records are too 
defective, however, to be trustworthy. Apparently they contain neither the 
Federal cases, the debtors nor the contempt cases. Roughly estimated, how- 
ever, it is safe to say that the daily convict population of the jail sentenced by 
the Criminal and Municipal Courts ranged from a mimimum of 47 on June 4, 
1917, to 101 on December 1, 1919. On March 6, 1922, it was 65. The average 
number must have been approximately 70.(2) This situation was somewhat 
relieved in the three years, 1918 to 1921, by the transfer of a considerable 
number of these to the County Poor Farm at Oak Forest, as many as 15 to 25 
being kept there on farm work during the greater part of that period. By 
December, 1921, the number so disposed of had fallen to six and in March, 
1922, only one remained. 

The offenses for which jail sentences are imposed are various, ranging from 
attempted murder, burglary and robbery, to the most trifling misdemeanors. 
Commitments for larceny are the most frequent, running from 48 in 1913 to 
228 in 1917, and 210 in 1920. By far the larger number come from the Criminal 
Court, the Municipal Court being responsible for only 48 out of 370, or 13 
per cent, in 1920; 37 out of 221, or 16.7 per cent in 1919; 25 out of 296, or 8.5 
per cent in 1918, and 48 out of 380, or 12.6 per cent in 1917. ( 3) 

In so far as it lies in the discretion of the courts, this practice of sentencing 
convicted offenders to the jail should be stopped at once; and where legislative 
or other action is necessary to put an end to the practice, no time should be lost 
in securing the needed relief. Reference has already been made to the vicious 
effect upon the jail of perpetuating the old tradition that it is a den of thieves. 
Apart from this, however, there can be no justification for a practice which adds 
materially, as this does, to the disgraceful condition of overcrowding which 
already prevails in the institution. 

(3) Character of the Jail Population 

Here and there in the foregoing study allusions are made to the'diversity 
of character contained in the jail population. Based, as these are, onjpersonal 



(1) Tables A-1.5, 18 and 19. 

(2) Table A-16. 

(3) Table A-15. 




impressions, on statistics showing the nature of the charges on which the in- 
mates are held, and on their own statements as to their previous arrests, if any, 
it is recognized that they may seem too indefinite or, at least, too general in 
character to satisfy the demands of an exact survey. For this reason, in order 
to secure a concrete basis of fact for the authorities as well as for the general 
public to go on, it was deemed best to undertake an individual character study 
of the jail population. The data elicited by this inquiry, which appear in a 
special report herein annexed, are of great interest. They demonstrate two 
facts of importance: First, that in the vast majority of cases most, if not all, 
of the relevant facts regarding a prisoner's personality and history are readily 
obtainable; and second, that the facts thus obtained go far to determine the 
prisoner's character, that is to say his dependendability, the extent of his 
divergence, if any, from normal standards of behavior, the mental or social 
factors in such divergence and the prospects and preferable methods of securing 
his rehabilitation. 

On the first point, the accessibility of the desired information, it is interest- 
ing to note that out of 381 unselected cases, 86 per cent had been residents in 
Chicago or Cook County for at least a year. Out of 101 cases more thoroughly 
studied, the school record was available in 70 per cent of the cases and more 
than half of these contributed information of value; in 92 per cent of the cases 
the work record was found to be available and nearly 80 per cent of these were of 
value; 70 per cent were know to one or more registering social agencies and 
94 per cent had a place in the community, i.e., were attached to a family or 
known to neighbors, etc. In other words less than six per cent were waifs or 
strays and nearly all were city dwellers and had a definite location. 

For the other result of this inquiry, the specified facts elicited concerning 
the individuals studied, reference must be had to the detailed report. In 
general it may be said that it vindicates to a gratifying degree the conclusion 
reached in the character analysis of the jail population elsewhere given. The 
proportion of workers to "loafers" is not less than 81 to 19, and the ratio of 
steady workers to shifting (but still regular) laborers, 42 to 58. Considering the 
large proportion of boys and very young men among them, it is not surprising 
to find that only 17 per cent are married. A considerable number, perhaps 20 
per cent, are well disposed but incompetent, and obviously in need of protec- 
tive care, some of them of custodial care. A few of them are the black sheep of 
respectable families whose tact and intelligence have not been equal to the 
problem of handling them. Many are feeble-minded, sloughed off by the 
schools and left to make their own way among the pitfalls of life. Others are 
"not right," eccentric, psychopathic, proper candidates for a hospital rather 
than a jail. Some have "seen service" — less than one would expect, however — 
and have gotten little good out of army life. And then there are the habitual 
criminals (only a few of them, however) to whom a spell in jail is only a part 
of the day's work, and the derelicts (still fewer in number) who have come to the 
pass where jail life is a part of the year's routine. 

What impresses one in reading the individual records on which this report 
is based, is not the guilt or innocence of the individual with respect to the 
specific crime charged, but the basic elements of character, good or bad, which 
his social history, taken as a whole, disclosed. The crime, if he was guilty of one> 

34 



is, indeed, an important factor in this estimate of character, but it becomes 
clear that it is not the only one, and the previous history may not only create a 
presumption as to guilt or innocence in the particular case, but may give even 
guilt a different complexion, for better or worse, by placing the act in due 
relation to its background. 

Inspired by these considerations the jail survey has ventured on such an 
estimate of what may, for lack of a better word, be termed the "dependability" 
of the individuals comprising the jail population. The group of workers who 
conducted this inquiry constituted themselves a jury to weigh the evidence. 
Their conclusions are interesting. Taking into account all the facts of per- 
sonality which they could gather from personal contact with the individuals 
concerned and from inquiries pursued among those acquainted with them, 
and giving due weight to the work record, the school record and the family 
record, as well as to previous criminal experience, if any, of the group so studied, 
they came to the conclusion that 36 per cent of those examined were "depend- 
able" and 32 per cent "^independable." The remaining 32 per cent they class 
as "doubtful," mostly on the ground of insufficient information. It would 
probably be fair to divide these doubtful cases between the two groups in the 
ration of 36 to 32, which would raise the dependable group to 52.5 per cent and 
undependable to 47.5 per cent. But, eliminating all speculative factors and 
leaving the doubtful group entirely out of account, we have the significant 
result that at least one-third of the jail population, not less than 250 of those 
at present confined, not less than 350 of the number confined when the popula- 
tion is at its present maximum, are unnecessarily subjected to the ordeal of im- 
prisonment while awaiting the disposition of their cases. 

(4) Morale or the Jail Population 

There is another aspect of the jail, too subtle and indefinite to be measured 
by statistics and yet too obvious to be overlooked — something that may be 
described as the resultant of all the conditions heretofore set forth. It is the 
"morale," the spirit and temper, of the jail population. 

It cannot be denied that this is bad. This fact has been impressed on 
everyone connected with the jail survey who has visited the institution and 
mingled with the inmates, and the impression thus formed has been corrobo- 
rated by a graduate student in Chicago University who has recently served a 
a two- weeks' term as a voluntary prisoner in the jail. The general atmos- 
phere is one of anxiety and depression alternating with feverish hopes of speedy 
release, the latter usually turning on the prospects of "fixing" some one in 
authority. 

The moral tone is also bad. There are only two invariable topics of con- 
versation — sex and the chance of getting out. Filthy talk and filthy practices 
are common in the crowded cells and bull-pens. Homo-sexual vice is not un- 
common and is laughed at. It seems to excite no horror and scarcely any 
reprobation. Young boys are corrupted and forced. Dope can be had by any- 
one who can pay for it. Even those who are not "fiends" often get it and use it 
to find temporary relief from the unbearable irritation and the depression of 
jail life. Not unfrequently new comers are set upon, mauled and robbed of 
what little money or other valuables they may have, sometimes stripped of 

35 



shoes, shirts and other articles of clothing. These things may happen in the 
crowded bull-pens or in the cells to which they are committed, and attract 
little attention from those not directly concerned. It is all a part of jail life. 

If cleanliness is next to godliness, the inmates of the jail are far, indeed, 
from the latter condition. There is little sense of the decency of cleanliness. 
The prisoners are expected to keep their cells in order, but the galleries and 
bull-pens become a dump for refuse of all kinds which is thrown from the cells — 
papers, fruit peelings, what is left of the prison meal or the surplus of then- 
packages of eatables.* During the exercise periods the men walk or stand in 
this mess, which, with the incessant spitting, soon gives the place the aspect 
of a sty. 

The uncertainties and disappointments in the matter of getting to trial 
create a condition of nervous strain and irritability which keeps the whole 
population on edge, a condition which is aggravated by the total lack of pri- 
vacy, by day or by night, and by the enforced association with people who are 
distasteful or whose language and habits are annoying. Mr. Lane in his report 
comments on the mob-like atmosphere of the jail, and Mr. Whitman on the 
unrest and danger of trouble that breeds in this mass of humanity filled with 
resentment and hate against their oppressors. 

It would be a mistake to assume that these conditions are wholly, or even 
largely, due to the bad character of the prisoners individually. It is an artificial 
result which would be produced in any class of half-baked, undisciplined men 
and boys living under the same intolerable conditions. The best soon sink to 
the level of the worst. 

(5) Conclusions 

From the distracting mass of statistical and other material above sur- 
veyed, a few facts of capital importance to our inquiry stand out and claim 
our attention. 

Fibst. The first the these is the disconcerting fact that a large number of 
children thirteen to sixteen years of age, and subject, therefore, in the first 
instance, to the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court, are still thrown into the 
County Jail to await their day in Court. This is so clearly inconsistent with 
the spirit, if not the letter, of the Juvenile Court law, that it calls for explana- 
tion on the part of those responsible for the procedure. The law excludes only 
one class of offenders under seventeen years of age from the protective juris- 
diction of the Juvenile Court — those accused of murder, and one only of those 
committed to the jail in 1921, was of that class. If it is still deemed neces- 
sary in Illinois to subject other juvenile offenders to the punitive procedure 
of the criminal law, that fact affords no sufficient excuse for committing them 
for custody to the county jail. Whatever offenses may be imputed to these 
children, the place for them is the Juvenile Detention Home, where they can 
not only live under more decent and humane conditions, but may receive the 
study and treatment that they may require. 

Indeed, it is pertinent to inquire whether the people of Illinois are not 
about ready to follow the example of other enlightened communities and abolish 
entirely this divided jurisdiction over juvenile offenders. No boy or girl under 
seventeen should on any pretext be subject to any jurisdiction but that of 
the Juvenile Court. It may be truly said that the "boy thugs," who are re- 

36 



served for the Criminal Court are the ones that most need the careful study 
and vigilant supervision which the Juvenile Court was instituted to furnish. 

Second. The second fact that demands attention is the largen umber of 
immature boys of 17 to 20 years of age, all still in the impressionable and 
plastic period of their lives, who are compelled to await the pleasure of the 
State's Attorney and the courts in the corroding atmosphere of the county 
jail. Something like 2000 of these boys undergo this experience every year. 
This is a crime against youth and calls for immediate correction. 

It will be profitable to take a glance back over the history of the last twenty- 
five years. When Whitman became jailer in 1895, and for ten years after, the 
jail was full of youngsters of ten to sixteen years of age. There are no records to 
indicate their number, but Mr. Whitman says there were hundreds of them. 
They were the "terrors" of their time and of the jail. They were the boy des- 
peradoes, who kept the jail in an uproar and were, in consequence, kept under 
the sternest discipline and visited with the severest punishments. Special 
precautions were taken against them. Older prisoners were allowed a certain 
degree of liberty in the bull-pens but not these wild and irresponsible boys. 
Every new jailer and guard on taking office was warned against them, while 
they lived the degrading and demoralizing life that the jail still provides for its 
inmates. What has since become of them? Nobody knows. Doubtless most 
of them, after their initiation in the jail, became good and regular members of 
the fraternity of crooks and thugs. If they didn't, they must have been singu- 
larly impervious to the treatment to which they were subjected there, which 
the boys only a little older than they were, are now receiving in the same place. 

These younger boys are not, except in a few instances, any longer com- 
mitted to the jail. Instead, they are cared for in the friendly and helpful atmos- 
phere of the Juvenile Detention Home. Here they are studied, while they 
themselves study and work and play, and then, as their welfare may require, 
are either returned to their homes or placed on probation or committed to an 
institution like the St. Charles School, where the healing and redemptive in- 
fluences of the Juvenile Detention Home may be continued. Their initiation 
is not into vice and crime but into the brotherhood of "good sports," who 
play the game and learn to be men. 

This change in the method of treating the boy criminal — for in those days 
it was these children who, as burglars and robbers and thieves, bore the burden 
of criminality, as their older brothers do now — marks a forward step in civiliza- 
tion. Starting with the institution of the Juvenile Court in Chicago only 
twenty years ago, it has gone all over the land and has found admirers and 
imitators in foreign countries. There is nothing in the history of Chicago in 
which her people may more justly take pride than this achievement. 

But time has not stood still in these twenty years and the hour has come 
for another forward step. It is the turn of the older boys, the present-day 
thugs and desperadoes, to be given a similar chance by the same, identical 
means. 

Unfortunately Chicago has missed the opportunity to assert her leadership 
in this second phase of the forward movement. There is a well-defined ten- 
dency in many of our states and cities to provide a method of treatment for 
these youthful offenders analogous to that of the Juvenile Court. In several 
states the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court has actually been extended to them. 

?,i 



In New York City a study is being made of the adolescent offender up to 
twenty-one years of age with a view to determining the feasibility of similar 
action there. The city of Chicago has recognized the distinction involved in 
this tendency by setting up a Boys' Court, as a specialized branch of the Munici- 
pal Court. The next step is to transform this tribunal into a Boys' Court of 
unlimited jurisdiction in cases of crime or delinquency, with the protective 
and correctional powers now exercised by the Juvenile Court. 

But it is not necessary to wait for the full development of this program. A 
beginning may be made at once by the provision of a Boys' Detention Home 
to receive these young offenders. This must, of course, be a secure place of deten- 
tion, but it should not be a jail; . at least of all the jail, in which older and more 
hardened offenders are confined. It should be as frankly a place for the study 
and treatment of the delinquent as is the Juvenile Delinquent Home and 
should be as well equipped with facilities for the educative and ameliorative 
processes which have developed under the enlightened procedure of the Juve- 
nile Court. It should also maintain the milder discipline and the more sympa- 
thetic and helpful spirit of the Juvenile Home. 

Will they, under such a regime, be "dangerous?" Well, they are dangerous 
now to the jail authorities and to the community in the future. It is an illusion 
that severe, repressive methods of discipline tend to promote order or dis- 
courage the tendency to escape. They have exactly the contrary effect. The 
best disciplinary measures are those that secure the voluntary cooperation 
of the prisoners, and bring their better impulses into play. They play the 
game whatever it may be. They match force with force or cunning; they meet 
friendliness and sympathy with gratitude and cooperation. This has been so 
often demonstrated in the history of institutional management that only those 
who shut their eyes to the fact, iail to see it. 

Third. A third fact of commanding importance to our inqu'ry is the great 
preponderance of young men, many of them still boys in years and more of 
them in mind and spirit, in our jail population. Undeveloped in character, 
inexperienced in life, with habits still in the making and with little or no training 
in industry, these young men of twenty-one or thirty offer an alluring oppor- 
tunity for constructive effort to set them in the way of right living. For them 
the period of detention should be a schooling in citizenship rather than in vice 
and crime. 

This points to the creation of a type of detention in which they will not 
only be able to group themselves naturally according to their characters and 
tastes and be protected from enforced contact with vice and depravity, but 
where they will be furnished with as much industrial and other training as the 
period of their detention renders possible and with carefully-devised occupation 
and recreation. Play is as important as work in the building of character in 
the young, and in the development of a sound social attitude, and these young 
men should have an abundance of both. If to all these things, there should also 
be added some experience in the responsibilities of citizenship and the oppor- 
tunity to demonstrate their trustworthiness, we should have a jail which is an 
asset rather than a liability to the community which maintains it. 

Fourth. A further fact that appears but dimly in the record which has 
been spread on these pages, but the existence ot which may be safely assumed. 

88 



is the presence in the jail of a large number of men and women who are unfitted 
by mental or physical defect or disease to constitute an integral part of the 
jail community. There must be a considerable number who are too feeble- 
minded or psychopathic to receive proper treatment in jail and who are a 
constant menace to the order and discipline of the institution. It is usually 
among these that the "bad actors" are found and it is these who are the carriers 
of the infection of abnormal vice. There must be many also so infected with 
tuberculosis or venereal disease as to require the most expert clinical or hospital 
treatment. It is a refinement of cruelty to subject people so afflicted to jail life. 
They should be taken care of in institutions like the County Hospital, where they 
can receive the expert treatment that their cases require. The jail, as a place 
of temporary detention, cannot be expected to provide proper facilities for 
dealing adequately with cases of this kind. It should, however, be equipped, 
not only with a medical staff and hospital, such as are recommended in the 
report of Dr. Preble and Dr. Miller, but, in addition, with a completely equipped 
psychopathic laboratory to be administered by the State Criminalogist. This 
should make a mental examination of every prisoner on his admission to the 
jail, and, in conjunction with the Bureau of Social Service of the County, 
should also make a thorough personal and social study of each inmate. The 
facts so gathered would not only be of greatest value to the jail administration 
in the classification of the jail population and to the State's Attorney and the 
Courts in their subsequent dealings with the prisoners, but would constitute 
an invaluable body of knowledge for the scientific study of the delinquent 
classes. Such a study has long been desired by students of the crime problem 
because of its bearing on the whole question of the administration of criminal 
justice. It is equally to be desired as an aid in the solution of the jail problem. 
The character study of the jail population which has been conducted as an 
incident of. this survey may be regarded as the beginning of a more compre- 
hensive program of investigation to be carried out by the authorities of the 
jail. It has at least demonstrated the feasibility of such a program and the value 
of the results that it may reasonably expect to obtain. 

Fifth. Another outstanding fact of the jail situation is the contented 
ignorance of the authorities as to the character of the individuals comprising 
the jail population. They know nothing but the offense with which the prisoner 
is charged, the amount of the bail-bond that he must provide in order to pur- 
chase his freedom and the bare facts as to age, sex, color and the record of 
previous offenses. Cook County is equipped with a Bureau of Social Service, 
an institution of great possibilities, which, if adequately supported and properly 
utilized, should be able to render inestimable service in the task of individual- 
izing the treatment of those held in the jail. This bureau does, in fact, furnish 
the State's Attorney and the Criminal Court with a certain amount of personal 
information concerning those awaiting indictment or trial, and the psychopathic 
laboratory of the Municipal Court records an estimate of the mental condition 
of offenders in a small percentage of cases arraigned in that court, but the jail 
knows nothing of all this nor does it attempt to ascertain anything more. 

There are men and boys who have been taken by the police from a steady 
job, men who in good or in bad times, support a family, along with professional 
deadbeats and boys whose only conception of labor is the casual job; there are 
good and bad husbands and fathers; habitual drunkards and men of a settled 

39 



sobriety of life; gangsters and home-keeping school boys; the sober-minded with 
the reckless and light-minded ; men habituated to responsibility and, possibly, 
broken by it, the wastrels and ne'er-do-wells ; the feeble minded with the keen and 
intelligent; the insane and psychopathic with those whose mental and emotional 
balance leave nothing to be desired; shifty, tricky, cynical individuals, having 
no respect for man or God, with others of a marked character of dependability. 
All of these facts might be assumed even if they had not been brought out into 
the light of day by the character study of the jail population elsewhere referred 
to. 

But the jail knows nothing and cares nothing about all this. These facts 
have an immediate bearing on the treatment that might and should be employed 
in dealing with these varied types of personality, but the jail treats them all alike 
with equal suspicion and indifference. They are not so many men and women, 
boys and girls, but all together a jail population. That this is bungling business, 
even from the purely administrative point of view, every intelligent employer 
of labor would say. From the social point of view it is worse than a blunder; 
it is a crime. These cogs in a machine, these items in an account, are after all, 
men and women, boys and girls, with lives to be lived and redeemed, with souls 
to be saved or damned. The proper study of mankind is man, man the indi- 
vidual, not man in the aggregate. The obligation of the jail administration is to 
John and Martha; to Pete and Molly; not to an. indistinguishable, undifferenti- 
ated mass of humanity and it will not be until this mass is broken up into its con- 
stituent elements of human individuals that the jail will perform its real function 
of giving its unhappy victims a new hold on life — that teeming, struggling life 
that has, for the moment, thrown them off into this scrap-heap of humanity. 

Sixth. Another fact that stands out in our study of the jail is the deteriora- 
tion of character resulting from the contemptuous indifference of the authori- 
ties to the fate of those whom they hold in custody. Enough has been said 
elsewhere of the abhorrent living conditions that the jail affords. What has 
not been sufficiently noticed is the inevitable effect of these conditions in grad- 
ually eating away the self-respect of those subjected to them. The worst thing 
about filth is not the discomfort and horror that it excites but the fact that 
it will in time cease to excite disgust and horror. The worst thing about brutal 
repression is not the resentment it creates but its tendency to brutalize the 
victim of it. Contempt, if long enough continued, makes the despised indi- 
vidual sink immeasurably in his own esteem. So these men and boys, ill-fed. 
crowded like cattle into a dirty pen, hampered by numberless arbitrary re- 
strictions on their liberty, kept waiting week after week and month after month 
without knowledge as to the time of their trial or release, ignored and apparently 
forgotten, tend to sink in character to the level of contempt that the authori- 
ties have fixed for them. Mr. Anderson, in his report, comments on the sick- 
ening anxiety of the prisoners as to their fate, to the pathetic humility, after 
resentment had died out, with which they asked if something couldn't be done 
to hurry things up and get their cases heard. More than one man remarked 
that he would be glad to plead guilty and be done with it. "Better a fixed term 
in prison than this everlasting waiting in jail for something to happen." 

Who can estimate the effect, in terms of degradation, of the practice of 
executing the death penalty in the jail? That the apparatus for conducting 
hangings is kept there for instant use is itself an affront to every instinct of 

40 



decency and humanity that the prisoners may possess. The official attitude of 
contempt for them and their feelings reaches its highest expression in converting 
a jail corridor into a death chamber. 

Reference has been made elsewhere to the bad morale of the jail population. 
"Evil communications" do, it is true, "corrupt good manners," but that is an 
individual matter. A general breakdown in standards of deceny and morality 
is a community matter and results from conditions that are common to all. It 
is the jail with its callous, undiscriminating violation of human nature that has 
robbed the men and boys confined in it of the incentives of humane and decent 
living. 

3. THE WIDE-OPEN INTAKE 

Far too many people are committed to the county jail. This is the out- 
standing fact in any study of police, court and jail records. Too many are 
arrested, too many of those arrested are held for trial, too many of those held for 
trial are thrown into jail. The responsibility for these abuses is shared by the 
police, the Municipal Court and State's Attorney. 

(1) Relation of Police to the Jail Problem 

Here in Chicago as in other large cities, the root of the evil is to be found 
in the conception of the police function which has come to prevail in this 
country. Under a system which rates the efficiency of the police, not by the 
crime prevented or the actual number of offenders brought to justice, but by 
the number of arrests made, we get the results set forth in the report of the 
City Council Committee on Crime in 1915 and in the statistics presented by 
Miss Edith Abbott in this report. 

Thus, it appears that, in the year 1912, 85,357 persons were arrested and 
arraigned in the Municipal Court, 51,978, or 60.9 per cent, of whom were dis- 
charged and 33,397, or 39.1 per cent, held for the grand jury or for trial. For 
1913 the figures rise to the number of 109,711 arraigned, with 58,532 discharged 
on the preliminary hearing, 53.4 per cent of the whole number. Miss Abbott's 
figures, covering the twelve years, 1910-1921, give equally striking results, the 
number of arraignments varying widely from 77,077 in 1910 to 166,574 in 1915 — 
the banner year for the police thus far — dropping to 93,987 in 1919 and to 
90,476 in 1920, and rising again to 117,912 in 1921, with a percentage of dis- 
charged ranging from 42.7 in 1915 to 69.5 in 1920 and 66 per cent in 1921. ( i) 

What all this comes to is that anywhere from forty to eighty thousand 
citizens of Chicago or strangers within her gates are arrested every year either 
without cause or on such trifling charges that they get no further than the 
threshold of the Municipal Court. On the basis of accuracy of police work 
these figures seem to indicate a record of efficiency of from 38 to 50 per cent 
during the last dozen years. 

Commenting on the statistics of arrests and convictions given in its report, 
the Committee on Crime calls attention, in these words, to "The waste of 
needless arrests :" ( 2) "All available statistics show that more than 50 per cent of all 



(1) Report of City Council Committee on Crime (1915) pp. 20, 23. 

(2) Report (1915) p. 36. 

41 



the persons arrested and tried are discharged and for the more serious crimes 
the percentage discharged runs very much higher. Following the assumption 
that those discharged are innocent, or at most are guilty of such small offenses, 
that no penalty can be imposed, then more than half of all the 121,333 persons ( i) 
who were brought into the Municipal Court for felonies, for misdemeanors, or 
for violations of ordinances should not have been brought into court at all; 
that is, that more than 60,000 persons were brought into court needlessly. Most 
of these persons had been arrested, many thousands of them had spent twenty- 
four hours at least in the police stations, many hundreds had spent weeks or 
months in the County Jail. They had had all the humiliations of being arrested 
and tried, and the tax-payers had borne the cost of the police who had arrested 
them, of the police stations or jail that had detained them, of the courts and 
judges and other court officials who have been part of the machinery that 
tried them. There is more than this to be considered. Unjustified arrests and 
imprisonment create a disrespect for the law that in turn breeds lawlessness." 

Miss Abbott's report gives numerous illustrations of the trivial character 
of the charges on which many police arrests were made, as recorded in the last 
report of the Municipal Court. 

The indictment of police activity thus made covers not only the large 
number of arrests made on bare suspicion and without reasonable cause, but 
the much larger number arrested for trifling offenses which do not really call 
for judicial action. This is in effect an assumption by the police of the ju- 
dicial function of punishing offenders or suspected offenders by subjecting them 
to the humiliation of arrest and the hardships of confinement over night in a 
police lock-up. Examples of this practice are the frequent, sensational raids 
on suspected gambling establishments, often made without legal warrant, 
which result in wholesale arrests of scores of decent citizens, only to be held 
over night in the unwholesome detention cells of the police stations and dis- 
charged on arraignment in the morning. 

The machinery of justice should be invoked only where the public interest 
clearly demands such action. Most cases of wrong-doing, are, as a matter of 
fact, privately adjusted, disposed of by mutual concession, by apology or resti- 
tution on the one hand, by forgiveness on the other. It is well that this is so. 
Justice and mercy are not the prerogatives of the courts alone. It would be an 
intolerable situation if every violation of private or public right were to be 
tried and punished by the instrumentalities and methods of our system of 
criminal justice. Moreover it would be impossible. It is submitted that, as 
officers of the peace, the police should actively cooperate in promoting this 
adjustment of private differences. They should, at any rate, come to know 
from experience what cases are deemed of sufficient gravity to warrant judicial 
action and to restrict the exercise of the power of arrest to such cases. 

It is also to be desired that the police should be invested with more of a 
protective function, as was done in the city of New York under the recent 
police administration of Col. Arthur Wood. For this type of work, especially 
among the boys whose playground is the street, the police are peculiarly 
adapted. They are already organized so as to be in touch with every part 
of the city, especially with those parts where protective work is most required; 



(l) Figures tor i"'- 1 : Report !>. 25. 

42 



they come to know the families in their neighborhood, what the young people 
are doing after school hours or in the evening, what kind of company they are 
keeping, etc. ; they have a natural affinity for the work — at least it was reported 
by an observer in the course of the New York experiment that he had never 
found a policeman, who didn't like it better than any other paitof his job; and, 
finally, they are looked up to as the representatives of law and order and the 
visible authority of the community, and any boy, no matter how tough, is 
proud to be able to claim the policeman on the beat as his friend or pal. 

This higher duty of the police to the community has never been better 
expressed than in the words reported to have been spoken by Judge John J. 
Sullivan of the Superior Court on June 17, 1922, in addressing a group of newly 
appointed members of the police force of this city: "It is your duty to arrest 
persons committing crime, but a higher duty than that is to prevent crime. 
Preventing a man from committing a crime is better than punishing him after 
he has committed it. And it is a harder job, too. Never make an arrest unless 
you are sure you have a case." 

In conclusion, it may be proper to add that, to endow the police foimally 
with this protective function, would do as much for them as for the boys who 
come under their influence. The ordinary police function, represented by the 
club and the gun, is unfortunately • a necessary one and at the present time 
it is fashionable to exalt this to the exclusion of everything else. But this is not 
good for the man. He should have a responsible job as nearly as possible the 
reverse of his man-hunting job in order to keep his human nature in proper 
balance; and it is safe to predict that if he throws himself heart and soul into 
the business of protecting young people from the evil influences that are con- 
stantly soliciting them, he will find less and less use for his stick and gun. 

It is only incidentally that this report can take notice of the charges of 
police brutality in extorting confessions which are current in the County Jail. 
Not a few of the men confined there assert that they have been the victims of 
those methods, and the account given by Mr. Lane of the demented prisoner, 
whose condition is believed to be due to such treatment inflicted on him by the 
police, certainly presents a case for investigation by the grand jury. The fact 
that the Supreme Court of the State has recently expressed the opinion that 
such police practices are prevalent in Chicago merely gives official confirmation 
to a widely held popular belief. 

The "third degree" and the "sweating process," in so far as they still pre- 
vail in American cities, are a peculiarly vicious survival of the old judicial 
practice of securing confessions by tortures, which it is the proud boast of the 
English common law never to have tolerated and which was swept away on the 
continent as the result of the humanitarian effort of the great Beccaria in the 
eighteenth century. For the complete abolition of these methods we shall 
probably have to wait for a new and more refined police system, in which train- 
ing and intelligence shall have taken the place of the present exclusive reliance 
on brute force. In the meantime the practice should be checked by legislation, 
denying all validity to confessions made in the absence of defendant's counsel 
or of a committing magistrate. 

(2) Relation of Municipal Court to the Jail Problem 
The Chicago Municipal Court is the principal gateway to the county jail. 

43 



A considerable number of felony cases are submitted to the grand jury for 
indictment without the formality of a preliminary hearing before a police 
magistrate, but by far the greater number are held for the grand jury or for 
trial by the Municipal Court. The wide discrepancy between the number so 
held and the number actually brought to trial and convicted has been pointed 
out in the discussion of the disposition of jail cases above. A similar analysis 
of all cases held, which includes those admitted to bail, shows a wider dis- 
crepancy^ i) Thus is appears that out of 7362 felony cases disposed of by the 
Municipal Court in 1912, 4749, or 64.5 per cent, were discharged in that court: 
that 783 or 10.6 per cent, were thrown out by the grand jury, and 240, or 3.3 
per cent more, dismissed by the Criminal Court. Of the total number, only 932, 
or 12.7 per cent were found guilty. 

Of the number of 2613 held by the Municipal Court for the grand jury 
in that year, only 1172, i.e. 45.2 per cent, were ever brought to trial and 20.5 
per cent of these were acquitted. 

Miss Abbott's record shows that in the eight-year period, (1914-1921), the 
Grand Jury failed to indict in over twenty per cent of all cases held. In 1916 
this percentage reached the high figure of 33.6. Of those charged with felonies 
in the seven years, 1915-1921, she finds that approximately only one-fouth 
of the charges resulted in convictions, and she addes this significant comment: 
"Thus out of every hundred persons who are arrested for serious offenses, 
many of them held to the Grand Jury and degraded and poisoned by a period of 
detention in the County Jail, seventy-five are not convicted." 

It is, of course, possible to make too much of this discrepancy between the 
number of those held for trial and the number acutally brought to trial and 
convicted. The accused cannot be tried before being held. The establishment 
of real and probable cause by the complaining witness is enough to justify 
the court in holding the defendant. We may, perhaps, assume that sufficient 
cause was shown in any case in which the judgment of the committting magis- 
trate is confirmed by the finding of an indictment by the grand jury. But there 
is no presumption to this effect in the considerable number of cases where the 
Grand Jury refuses to indict and a strong presumption to the contrary in the 
much larger number of cases in which the case is dismissed on the motion of the 
State's Attorney. ( 2) The conclusion cannot be escaped that in a large proportion 
of these cases an investigation made before rather than after the decision to 
hold the accused for the Grand Jury would have rendered his commitment to jail 
unnecessary. 

This impression is confirmed by a comparison of the record of the Municipal 
Court with that of the committing magistrates in England, as given in Miss 
Abbott's report. Thus, where we have, in 1919, a record of 29 per cent of 
indictable offenses resulting in conviction and 71 per cent discharged, the 
English record is 79 per cent convicted and only 21 per cent discharged. In 
1921, the Chicago figures show 25 per cent of convictions and 75 per cent of 
discharges. In other words, where, out of those held on felonj r charges, the 
English courts discharge from one-fifth to one-fourth of those held for trial, we 
find that in Chicago no conviction can be had in three-fourths of the cases held. 



(1) Report of Crime Committee (1915) p. 26. 

(2) Tables A-9, 10, n. Report of Crime Committee, pp. 27-28. (Miss Abbott's report.) 



Admitting that this result is in part due to the superiority of the English system 
of conducting trials in felony cases, it raises a strong presumption that the 
English system of selecting cases for indictment and trial is at least equally 
superior to ours. It is, possibly, even more significant that it is the English 
and not the Chicago record which is attained in the administration of criminal 
justice in Canda, where, in 1919 and 1920, the courts convicted 79.9 and 79.5 
per cent, respectively, of the felony cases held for trial. 

But the Municipal Court makes a large direct contribution to the annual 
jail population, not less than 3955, or 41.3 per cent, of the whole number, in 
1914, 4216 or 47.3 per cent in 1916, and 3683, or 34.4 per cent, in 1921. Owing 
to the shorter period of detention of those held for the Municipal Court, its 
contribution to the daily population is relatively small, but it nevertheless, on 
December 1, 1920, amounted to 94, or 16 per csnt of the 587 confined on that 
day.( In view of the organization and simplified procedure of the Municipal 
Court it is not unreasonable to assume that this number could be materially 
reduced. 

(3) The State's Attorney and the Jail 

The office of the State's Attorney of Cook County is the most powerful 
agency of Government in the State of Illinois. Its control of the machinery 
of criminal justice, in the selection of cases to be tried and the termination of 
the time of trial, is practically unlimited. To him it is given to bind and to 
unloose. In all felony cases he represents the State in the Municipal Court 
and before the Grand Jury, as well as in the Criminal Court. His influence is 
strong, even where it is not predominant, in determining what cases shall be 
held for trial and in which cases an indictment shall be found. These unques- 
tioned facts fall far short of placing on him the responsibility for the excessive 
number of oasas held, or the excessive number of indictments found. But they 
raise a presumption strong enough to put him on the defensive. He is certainly 
in a position to prevent these abuses of the system of criminal justice and for 
that reason must share the responsibility with the Grand Jury and the Municipal 
Court 

It is not well that an office of such power should exist in a free community 
without a periodical non-partisan investigation into its personnel and methods 
and into the results of its operation. The community should know to what 
extent the State's Attorney is responsible for the enormous intake of the Countj 
Jail. 

(4) The Grand Jury and the Jail 

The Grand Jury is the last open gateway into the county jail. It, too, is 
too wide open. The discrepancy between the number of persons indicted and 
the number convicted is far too great. A single illustration will suffice. Out of 
1599 true bills found in 1921 and disposed of, 427, or 26.7 per cent of the whole 
number were stricken off by order of the Criminal Court and 240, or 15 per 
cent, were discharged after a verdict of not guilty. ( 2) A forty per cent margin 
of safety gives one the uneasy feeling that the Grand Jury conceives its function 



(1) Table A-12. 

(2) Table. (Crime Committee Report, pp. 26, 27, 28.) 



45 



to be the finding of indictments instead of the protection of those unjustly 
accused. 

The grand jury is itself on trial, with the tide of public feeling running 
strongly against it. In the larger cities it is believed to have become little more 
than a machine for registering the will of the State's Attorney in the matter of 
finding indictments. 

The finding of an indictment is a grave matter. It is by indictment that 
the accused is formally charged by the State with the crime of which, up to that 
time, he has only been suspected. Whatever the legal presumption may be, 
he is now in fact presumed to be guilty. The imponderable but potent force 
of public opinion is against him. The State's Attorney treats him as guilty 
and, if the jury fails to convict, is apt to accuse it of conniving at criminality. 
The principles that should govern the Grand Jury in this matter were reiterated 
the other day by a learned Judge of the New York Supreme Court in his in- 
structions to a Grand Jury of New York County. "You are forbidden," he 
said, "to indict without evidence which, if unexplained or uncontradicted, 
would in your judgment be sufficient to prove the charge beyond reasonable 
doubt. Very often complaints are malicious or avaricious in their nature or 
made with some ulterior motive. It is well, when circumstances justify such a 
suspicion, to inquire cautiously into this." 

There is reason to believe that the Grand Jury of Cook County does not 
always live up to this conception of its duty. The gateway to the jail which 
is given into its control should be more jealously guarded. 

(5) The Bail-Bond System and the Jail 

The assertion has been made above that too many of those held for trial 
are thrown into jail. The problem seems, on the face of it, a simple one. The 
State is entitled to secure the presence in court of all those who have been 
held for trial. This security can be gained either by the giving of bail in a 
sufficient amount or by the detention of the accused in the county jail. The 
result of this is that a term in jail is little more than the price that the poor 
must pay for their poverty. The well-to-do, the "professionals" who have 
been shrewd enough to provide for this contingency, are free to go where they 
will and to ply thair ordinary vocations, whether these are honest or criminal. 
A former crook recently told the writer that he wouldn't find anybody in the 
jail but innocents and "the poor fish who didn't amount to much as crooks. A 
good crook can always get bail." 

Most of those held for trial find it possible to give bail. But even in this 
case are the words of the Scripture fulfilled: "The curse of the poor is their 
poverty." By far the larger part of those who secure bail are obliged to deal 
with the professional bondsman — one who has no interest whatever in his 
client and doesn't know or care whether he is innocent or guilty of the offense 
charged. Only a small minority find it possible to give personal bail. Now, the 
professional bondsman takes big risks and, as he is in the business for business 
reasons and not for sentimental ones, he charges big fees. Fifty dollars a thou- 
sand is the usual rate for a bond. Bonds in felony cases are rarely less than 
$5000, and, in the more serious cases, range from $10,000 to $50,000. For 
many charges there is a standard rate from $10,000 for simple robbery and 
$5000 for simple burglary to $400 for disorderly conduct; for larceny and the 

46 



confidence game the rate is from $1000 to $5000, according to the amount in- 
volved. But in many cases the charge is not "simple" but is complicated with 
one, two. three or more other charges growing out of the same transaction, as 
burglary with larceny, robbery with assault and with attempt to kill; and every 
charge has its own price. Perhaps the average amount that must be paid to 
provide a bond in felony cases is somewhere between $250 to $500 — a big sum 
for almost any inmate of the jail to provide and, for most, a prohibitive one. 
The necessary amount is often secured by borrowing from friends of the family 
or by the pawning of clothing or the mortgage of household chattels. 

Much as been said and written concerning the methods of these bail-bond 
"sharks," as the professional bondsmen are called; how they and their "runners," 
or agents, infest the approaches to the court room and the jail and persuade or 
terrorize the prisoners and the members of their families into submission to their 
extorionate demands. Jail and court attendants, the police, even the prisoner's 
lawyer is among these through whom the bondsman sometimes operates and 
often these aids of his are believed to be in his pay or to share the spoil. It is 
an infamous system and this is so clearly recognized by a conscientious jailer 
and by the Judges of the Municipal and Criminal Courts that efforts have 
been made to abate the nuisance. 

Everybody agrees that this shameless exploitation of the poor and unfor- 
tunate should be stopped at once, but no method has yet been devised for 
accomplishing this end. It begins to wear the aspect of a necessary evil — 
with the county jail a worse evil — as its necessary alternative. 

The Jail Survey has undertaken an investigation of the bailbond system 
as an incident of its study of the jail problem. This is not yet completed, but 
the character study of the jail population, the results of which have been indi- 
cated in a previous section of this report, opens the way to certain suggestions 
for meeting the situation. It is believed that the methods there employed, if 
utilized by the Municipal Court, the State's Attorney and the Criminal Court, 
will make it possible and expedient to release a large number of the prisoners on 
their personal recognizance without forcing them to resort to professional 
bondsmen . 

It will be recalled that the study of the jail population comprehended an 
investigation of the individual prisoner's personality, as well as of his personal, 
social and industrial record; that the facts in a vast majority of cases are easily 
obtainable, and that the study made showed the existence in the prison of a 
considerable proportion of inmates, not less than one-third of the total number 
held for trial, who are presumably trustworthy. The method employed is sub- 
stantially the same as that of the personnel manager of a bank or business house 
or the credit man of a manufacturing or other selling concern, supplemented by 
a psychological or psychiatric study of the individual's personality. 

Applying these tests it would seem that not less than 200 or 250 men and 
boys now confined in the jail might wisely be selected for release on their 
personal bonds. Such release would of course, be conditional, and the person 
released should probably, in most cases, be subject to the supervision of a pro- 
bation officer. 

Indeed, the suggestion comes to this, that the principles of probation shall 
be tentatively and cautiously applied to properly qualified persons who have 
been held for trial. It has been noted before that a considerable proportion 

47 



of jail inmates are, after conviction, placed on probation. It is an incongruous 
situation, that of keeping in jail a person legally presumed to be innocent, when, 
if his guilt is established, he will be permitted to go free. 

It is not to be expected that everyone so released on his own recognizance 
will make good. There will doubtless be an occasional breach of faith. But 
these are not wanting in the large class of persons, who, quite irrespective of 
character, are automatically released on bail. Out of 5520 bail-bonds in the 
Criminal Court in 1921, 552, or 12 per cent, were forfeited. (i) There is no 
reason to believe that the proportion of defaults will be greater in the former 
case than it has proved to be in the latter. 

It is hoped, indeed, that experience in using the method here suggested for 
those who are unable to give bail, will lead to the adoption of a similar character 
test for those who now secure it only too easily. It is a travesty on justice to 
set free on bail those who may be presumed to use the indulgence only to ply 
their criminal trades while awaiting trial for a past crime. 

Supplementing this official treatment of the bail problem, it is further sug- 
gested that immediate steps be taken to institute a bail-bond system of a less 
offensive and predatory character than the one at present in vogue. The ''Joan 
shark" has been largely displaced by the organization of new agencies of a repu- 
table character to make loans to respectable workingmen and others who need 
to be tided over periods of unemployment or business depression. Here is a 
similar emergency, which, it is believed, should be met in a similar way. A 
quasi-benevolent foundation or corporation, with adequate financial resources, 
using the methods of investigation above outlined, could render an immense 
humanitarian service by furnishing bail to deserving individuals at low or 
nominal rate. In a city like Chicago there must be many public-spirited men 
and women of means to whom such an opportunity would powerfully appeal. 

4. THE CLOGGED OUTLET 

The period of detention in the county jail is, for most of those confined, 
far too long. The statistics that have been presented make this too clear for 
argument. Forced confinement in jail, even under decent living conditions, is a 
bitter experience. Under the conditions that prevail in the Cook County jail 
it is cruel, if not unusual, punishment. If unnecessarily prolonged, it becomes 
a form of oppression that no civilized community would long tolerate. It 
cannot be denied that for most of those confined in the jail the period of im- 
prisonment is unnecessarily long. 

(1) The Municipal Court 

It has been seen that Municipal Court cases make up a large proportion 
of the annual jail population (from a third to one-half of the whole), but, as these 
are for the most part disposed of in from ten to thirty days after commitment, 
they play a comparatively unimportant role in the statistics of daily popula- 
tion — not more, say, than 16 per cent. The Criminal Court and the Grand 
Jury are responsible for the remaining 493 out of a day's population of 587 
who are held for court action, ( 2) i.e., 84 per cent. 



(1) Chicago Crime Commission's Third Annual Keport (1922) p. 27. 

(2) The number held for trial on December 1, 1920. See table A-12. 



48 



(2) The Grand Jury 

The Grand Jury is regarded by many members of the bar as a serious 
obstacle to the speedy administration of criminal justice. Its record, here as 
elsewhere, is an extremely variable one. Considering the fact that it sits only 
when summoned by the Criminal Court and that, in the matter of investigating 
criminal complaints, it acts only on cases submitted by the State's Attorney, its 
efficient operation must obviously depend largely on the way in which these 
two directing agencies perform their respective functions. The promptness with 
which it disposes of cases awaiting its action has greatly improved in the last 
two or three years, due, it may be believed, to the stimulating influences of the 
Chicago Crime Commission. That there is room for further improvement 
appears from the fact that 60 per cent of its cases must still wait over two weeks 
in jail before action, 41 per cent more than three weeks and 15 per cent more 
than a month. ( i) But, as has been intimated, there is no reason to believe that 
the Grand Jury, per se, is responsible for these delays. 

It may be said, therefore, that the chief responsibility for the unjust and 
oppressive conditions of delay in bringing jail cases to a speedy determination 
rests with the Criminal Court and the State's Attorney. To fix the relative 
degrees of this responsibility would require a thorough investigation of the 
whole procedure whereby criminal justice is administered in this county, and 
such an inquiry lies outside the scope of this Survey. A sufficient body of facts 
for the purpose of this report, has, however, been accumulated by the Chicago 
Crime Commission and the Committee on The Administration of Criminal 
Justice of the Chicago Bar Association, and it is upon this that reliance has 
been principally placed. 

(3) The Criminal Court 
Organization 

The Criminal Court of Cook County has elements of flexibility in its 
organization that should make it an efficient instrument of criminal adminis- 
tration. It is not an independant tribunal with a fixed personnel, but a body 
of an indefinite number of Judges drawn from a panel of forty Judges of the 
Superior and Circuit Courts. Its number can be increased or diminished ac- 
cording to the state of the criminal calendar and this can be effected by the 
combined action of the two courts from which its members are drawn, without 
legislative or executive permission. The assignments are in fact made by a 
joint executive committee of the Superior and Circuit Courts. From its 
membership thus constituted the Criminal Court chooses a Chief Justice, who 
at the opening of each term of Court, assigns the cases awaiting trial to the 
several judges by lot. Here, it is evident, we have that rare thing, a judicial 
body which can of its own volition, adjust itself to any demands that may be 
made upon it and that has in it, therefore, the promise and potency of the 
highest efficiency. Our statistics have shown that this promise has not been 
fulfilled. 

There are several reasons for this. One is that the joint committee that 
has the duty of making assignments to the Criminal Bench is not in immediate 



(1) Table A-13. 

49 



contact with its problems and has no keen sense of its necessities. It is remote . 
in its interests and sympathies. Another reason is that the Criminal Court is 
the neglected step-child of the family. Most judges dislike an assignment to 
what is after all, the most distasteful part of the judicial function. A third 
reason is a lack of team-play, of cooperation, on the part of the court and the 
State's Attorney. This is a serious drawback. It results in a calendar pre- 
pared without reference to the state of preparation of the prosecuting officer of 
the county and in ignorance of any plans that he may have for moving 
cases in the order of their importance or their relations to one another or for 
other proper reasons. Consequently there are clashes, the frequent breakdown 
of the calendar, continuances, and all these things spell confusion and delay — 
always more delay. 

But there remains the flexibility of the court, in praise of which too much 
cannot be said. Its beneficial operation is witnessed in the recent increase in 
the number of Judges from seven to nineteen in order to meet the increasing 
demands of the great volume of indictments recently presented by the Grand 
Jury. But it is to be observed that this enlargement of the Court was brought 
about only as the result of pressure from public opinion. It had been long over- 
due. 

Jurisdiction 

The Criminal Court has original judrisdiction of all criminal offenses 
such as is conferred on justices of the peace. Its jurisdiction, therefore, over- 
laps that of the Municipal Court in cases of misdemeanor, and these may, and 
in many instances, in fact, are, taken from the jurisdiction of the Municipal 
Court by indictment and added to the over-crowded calendar of the Criminal 
Court. This appears to be due to the insistence of the State's Attorney and.is 
another illustration of the lack of team-play, which in this matter takes in the 
Municipal Court as well. If the needed cooperation between these co-partners 
in the administration of criminal justice cannot be brought about, legislation 
should be sought wiping out this anomalous double jurisdiction in cases of 
misdemeanor and restricting the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court to felony 
cases. 

We might, perhaps, wisely go further in this direction by effecting a transfer 
of a substantial part of the present exclusive jurisdiction of the Criminal 
Court to the Municipal Court. Bearing in mind the fact that over 80 per cent 
of the daily population of the jail are held for trial in the Criminal Court and 
that the Municipal Court keeps almost abreast of its calendar, such a transfer 
of jurisdiction would obviously be in the interests of the swifter administration 
of justice. What classes of cases should be so transferred could easily be worked 
out by those who are familiar with conditions in the courts affected by the 
plan. A beginning could probably be made with larceny cases. These now con- 
stitute approximately one-thud of all offenses charged and over one-half of all 
convictions. ( i) A large proportion of these involve insignificant sums. If the 
line between larceny and petit larceny were drawn at $50, or even $100, and 
jurisdiction in all cases of petit larceny rested in the Municipal Court, the effect 
on the overloaded calendar of the Criminal Court would be to reduce it at a 
stroke to manageable proportions. 



(1) See Miss Abbott 's Report . 

50 



It may be remembered that the limit of petit larceny in Illinois ($15) is 
preposterously low. It is the standard of an eighteenth century community 
surviving into a time of different values. Most American States have drawn 
the line to $50, for simple larceny. 

If it should be objected that the penalties within the power of the Municipal 
Court to indict are too low to meet the demands of justice in the class of cases 
referred to, two answers may be made. The first is that many more pleas of 
guilty would probably be made and many more convictions obtained, and 
that the greater speed and certainty of the procedure would more than com- 
pensate for the lighter sentences which it would be in the power of the court 
to inflict. A workhouse sentence of a year, with or without the addition of a 
fine, would probably be a sufficient deterrent in most cases of this kind. 

A second answer is that the court should be empowered to impose an 
indeterminate sentence of not more than three years in all workhouse cases in 
lieu of the present maximum of one year. A sentence of a year or less is worse 
than useless, not only because it makes it impossible to carry out any con- 
structive plan for the rehabilitation of the offender but also because it is the 
germ of the disease or recidivism which brings petty offenders back again and 
again through the fatal round of the court, the jail and the workhouse. 

Not only is the repeater the nuisance of our system of criminal administra- 
tion through his contribution to the clogging of the wheels of justice, but the 
practice of sentencing him repeatedly to short terms of imprisonment merely 
serves to confirm him in his lawless tendencies. Of the 14,709 persons com- 
mitted to the House of Correction in 1913, nearly half had served one or more 
pervious sentences, 3300, or nearly 30 per cent, were serving their third sentence, 
and 333, or three per cent, had served ten or more sentences to the same or 
similar institutions. For these reasons the short sentence should be done away 
with and the indeterminate sentence substituted for all classes of misde- 
demeanants. 

The Unified Court 

There are hopeful signs that a more comprehensive solution of the problem 
of the Criminal Court jurisdiction may soon be attained through the consolida- 
tion of the two local courts of criminal jurisdiction into one. The new consti- 
tution, to be submitted to the people of the State of Illinois in December next, 
provides for a unified court of complete civil and criminal jurisdiction for Cook 
County. If this should become effective, the lost motion and waste of energy, 
as well as the conflict of jurisdiction, which are characteristic of our present 
system, will be done away with through the centralized administration which 
such a unified court will ensure. 

If the constitution should be defeated, it will then become the duty of the 
bar and of all civic organizations and public spirited citizens to press ener- 
getically for the creation of such a court as speedily as possible. No other plan 
holds out sufficient hope of bringing about the coordinated effort which is essen- 
tial to the efficient administration of justice in a great city. 

The unified court represents a wide-spread movement in this country at 
the present time. A few years ago it was the dream of a few men of vision. 
Today it is a reality. The best existing example of it is the still imperfect 
but still admirable "reorganized Recorder's Court of the City of Detroit," 

51 



which was erected in 1920 out of the material furnished by two such courts as 
divide the criminal jurisdiction of this city and county. Its immediate effect 
in speeding up the administration of Criminal Justice and cutting down the 
jail population, is pointedly described by the Honorable William H. Heston, 
Presiding Judge of the Recorder's Court, in his report for the year ending 
April 20, 1922. His statement comparing the figures of the disposition of felony 
cases in the year 1921-1922, the second year of the Court's operation, with those 
of the year ending 1919-1920, before the new court went into operation, has 
such a direct bearing on the problem before us that it is here given: 

"Delay in the trial and disposition of cases defeats the ends of justice, 
both in its effects upon the innocently accused as well as upon the guilty. The 
court has kept abreast of its cases, disposing of them as rapidly as they could be 
prepared for trial. Continuances for any but legitimate reasons were dis- 
couraged by being denied. As a result of this policy, 66 per cent of the felony 
cases brought into the court during the year were tried within seven days after 
the arraignment of the defendant. 

The promptness with which felony cases are brought to trial is shown 
by the following analysis of 3338 cases that were tried in the year under con- 
sideration. 



1921 



Number weeks Cases 

1 2189 

2 203 

3 154 

4 252 

5 197 

6 138 

7 64 

8 42 

9 31 

65-90 days 53 

90-270 days 15 

270-610 days 

3338 





191* 


) 


Cumulative 


Per 




Per 




Cent 


Cases 


Cent 


1921-1919 


66 


31 


2 


66 2 


6 


61 


3 


72 5 


5 


95 


5 


77 10 


7 


105 


5 


84 15 


6 


114 


6 


90 21 


4 


123 


6 


94 27 


2 


132 


7 


96 34 


1 


128 


6 


97 40 


1 


371 


19 


98 59 


ty* 


137 


7 


99 V 2 66 


Vi 


265 


14 


100 80 




268 


20 


100 



100 



1830 



100 



"The above figures show that at the end of 28 days the present court dis- 
posed of 84 per cent of the cases after arraignment on a warrant, while under 
the old organization in 1919 only 15 per cent were disposed of within 28 days. 
By the end of 65 days, 98 per cent were disposed of in 1921, while in 1919, 59 
per cent were disposed of within the same period. In other words, in 1921, 
only 2 per cent of the cases analyzed were in court over 65 days — in 1919, 41 
per cent of felonies were in court over 65 days before being disposed of. 

"The benefits of the unified court are particularly apparent in those cases 
where the defendant pleads guilty to a felony upon arraignment on a warrant. 
The records show that of the 3338 cases analyzed, 1539, or 46 per cent, were such 
cases, and accordingly were disposed of the same day that the arraignment on 



the warrant was' made. Under the old dual court system this would have 
been impossible because, even after a plea of guilty to a felony upon arraign- 
ment in the Police Court, the defendant would be bound over for disposition 
during the succeeding term of the Recorder's Court. 

"Promptness in disposing of cases is reflected in the number of prisoners 
in jail and in the length of time such prisoners spend in jail before their cases 
are disposed of. In this connection, it is interesting to note that on March 31, 
1920, a few days before the new court took effect, there were 173 offenders in 
jail awaiting trial. Of this number, 82 or 47 per cent — practically half of them 
— had been in jail over 25 days; a few 150 days. On March 31, 1922, there were 
83 prisoners in jail awaiting trial in the Recorder's Court and of this number 
only seven or nine per cent were in jail over 25 days." 

Procedure 

The procedure of the Criminal Court leaves much to be desired. Under 
the law and practice of this state, which have reduced the presiding judge al- 
most to the position of an automaton, the criminal lawyer is given a free hand 
to work the machinery of the court for the benefit of his client. Rules adopted 
in another day for the protection of the innocent against arbitrary power have 
become technical devices for shielding the guilty. The result is that many 
criminal trials have become a travesty of justice. All this makes for that fatal 
delay which gives immunity to the guilty and keeps the county jail crowded 
with men and women who are praying for their day in court. 

The preposterous rule which makes the jury the judges of law as well as 
of fact should be abrogated and the judge restored to his time-honored function 
of directing the course of trial, of keeping the defendant's counsel within the 
bounds prescribed by the rules of procedure and the traditions of the bar and 
of commenting on the evidence in his instructions to the jury. These changes 
in procedure would not only restore dignity to the judicial administration in 
criminal cases and thus render that branch of the service more attractive to 
self-respecting members of the court, but would contribute materially to the 
aim of expediting the process of criminal justice. 

(4) The State's Attorney 

It has become increasingly clear, as this study has progressed, that the 
State's Attorney holds the key to the situation. There can be no marked 
improvement in the administration of criminal justice, whether from the point 
of view of efficiency or of even-handed justice, without his active cooperation 
with every part of the system, from the police to the highest court of criminal 
jurisdiction. In this respect the organization of his office and the caliber of his 
staff are as important as his personal devotion to the important dutes that de- 
volve upon him. If there is lack of coordination in the system as a whole, he 
cannot evade the responsibility by putting blame on the courts or on the 
imperfections of the criminal law. Neither can he acquit himself of his re- 
sponsibility by an occasional, spasmodic effort to increase the efficiency of his 
office or of the courts under the pressure of public opinion. His must be a con- 
tinuous performance. He can defeat the tricky devices of criminals who seek 
through repeated continuances and in other more devious ways to cheat justice. 

53 



He can, if lie will, secure the speedy trial of every indicted person, whether in 
jail or out. Until this has been accomplished, he cannot get out from under 
the shadow of the County Jail. 

(5) The Criminal Lawyer 

The denial of justice to the poor, of which so much is being said and 
written these days, is at its worst in the failure of the state to provide competent 
legal assistance for poor and friendless defendants in criminal cases. Many 
men and boys are in jail and stay in jail because of the lack of legal aid. Many 
of those among them who are guilty of the offense charged would plead guilty 
under competent legal advice. For lack of counsel of the right sort, many are 
driven to retain the services of members of the class who have been described 
as "the lowest strata of a no-longer necessarily learned profession."( i) 

By these their impulse to play the man and take their medicine, if guiltj-, 
or to make a fair fight, if innocent, is turned into a desire to beat the game by 
any dishonorable method that holds out hope of success. The lawyer they 
choose is the one who has a reputation as a "good fixer," one who has friends 
in high places or who knows how to manipulate a jury or buy off the com- 
plaining witness or secure continuances till all the evidence has disappeared. 
With good counsel at hand for every one at the time of his arrest the whole 
complexion of the case would be changed. 

The present practice of assigning counsel, who takes no particular interest 
in the penniless client thrust upon him and who rarely has any knowledge of 
criminal law or procedure, is a conceded failure, quite apart from the fact that 
he usually appears on the scene after the damage has been done. No complaint is 
more frequently heard in the County Jail than that of the neglect of the pri- 
soner and his interests by the counsel assigned to defend him. Proper legal aid 
would not let a man lie in jail for from three to six months without being heard 
from in the office of the State's Attorney or in the court, and proper legal aid 
would secure him a fair trial without abuse of the court procedure. 

There is no doubt that the criminal lawyer, who is the partner of crime and 
who brings the administration of justice into contempt, has rushed in to fill 
the vacancy left by the neglect of the State. Having come, he will stay until 
our bar associations attack the problem and the judges are moved to purge the 
profession by disbarring him. But it is not too late for the State or for the bar 
to repair the neglect. Either the State must in the interests of justice and fair 
play furnish the accused with a legal defense, equal in power and authority to 
that of the State's Attorney, or that duty must be undertaken by the bar 
of the county. It is for the Chicago Bar Association to say which of these 
solutions will be adopted for this community. 

II. The Problem of Detention in Cook County 

1. The Question of Population 

In the light of the facts heretofore given and analyzed, we should now be 
prepared to consider the problem of the detention of those members of the 
community who are held on criminal charges and are unable to give bail. This 



(1) Dean Roscoe Pound in Columbia Law Review, May, 1921. 

.".4 



analysis has made it clear that the County Jail is not a self-contained unit in 
our community life, to be studied by itself in terms of structure and population, 
but an integral part of the system of criminal justice which the community 
maintains. The more it is considered, the clearer it becomes that the jail is 
only a by-product of the other factors of that system and, therefore, a measure 
of their efficiency. The numbers that it houses and the length of their term of 
imprisonment are a plain reflection of the adequacy or the inadequacy to their 
duties and responsibilities of the police, the State's Attorney's office and the 
Courts, just as the type of jail structure and the treatment which the prisoners 
receive reflects the intelligence and humanity of the community at large. 

The foregoing survey of the administration of criminal justice in Cook 
County has demonstrated that the population of the jail is largely in excess of 
what it need be; that thousands are committed to it every year who might 
better have been left at large, and that the other thousands who are properly 
detained are unconscionably held in confinement for unnecessary periods of time. 

Probably few people realize how decisive a role the length of the period of 
detention plays in determining the size of the jail population at a given time, 
which in turn determines the size and character of the structure needed to 
house it. A few facts, with which this survey has already made us familiar, 
will make this clear. A total of 10,642 men, women and children made their 
home for longer or shorter periods in the County Jail during the last year, the 
daily population ranging from a minimum of 690 to a maximum of 1013. Now, 
assuming the flow to be a fairly constant one, and the period of detention only 
24 hours, the jail would have only 29 people to take care of at any one time; if 
the stay averaged only a week, the average number to be provided for would 
be 200; if a month, the number would be 887; if a year, provision would, of 
course, have to be made for 10,642. 

Let us look at the matter from another and less speculative point of view. 
The Municipal Court is responsible for an enormous intake, from a third to one- 
half of the annual population of the jail; but, because of the rate at which it 
disposes of its cases (84 per cent within thirty days after commitment), it 
contributes less than 100 to the daily population. Now, assume that the 
Criminal Court, acting in cooperation with the grand jury and the State's At- 
torney, were to attain a similar state of efficiency in disposing of its cases. That 
would make another 100, or a total of 200, held for trial at any one time. If 
we should add to this those held for the grand jury and the federal court and 
the handful of convicted prisoners held to await transfer to Joliet, Pontiac, 
etc., we should have a total of perhaps 250. That would allow one man or 
woman to each cell in the present jail, with a margin of 50 empty cells for emer- 
gencies. That this is not an incredible assumption, the facts given above of 
the success attained by the new Recorder's Court of Detroit in expediting the 
disposition of felony cases, is clear proof. It is true that these results were 
obtained by a unified court, but the emergency work now being performed by 
the Criminal Court with its nineteen judges shows that the same results can be 
achieved by that court under its present organization and powers, if the will 
exists to do it. 

The foregoing considerations bearing on the jail population of the future 
take no account of that considerable number of boys and men committed to 

55 



the jail because of their poverty, who may, nevertheless, be of such a character 
as to justify releasing them on their own recognizance, a number estimated at 
one-third of the total number now held in the jail to await court action. Of 
the aggregate of 4280 released on bonds in the Criminal Court in 1921, only 96, 
a trifle over two per cent, received this consideration^ i) 

Taking a long view of the problem, it would manifestly be a mistake to 
assume for the future anything like the past and present ratio between the 
population of the County and the number to be kept in detention to await 
judicial action. With such an organization of the system of criminal justice as 
we have at present and without any radical reconstruction of that system, we 
may, on the contrary, look forward to a large and, for some years to come, a 
progressive reduction of the number to be so held. With the coming of the 
unified court of criminal jurisdiction — a consummation that we may confidently 
anticipate — that tendency will only be confirmed and accelerated. 

This is as far as we can see, in the present state of our knowledge. We are 
living in a time of unprecedented change in our conceptions of the treatment of 
the crime problem as well as in mechanical and industrial conditions. The 
next generation is likely to witness a great advance in the development of pre- 
ventive measure which may materially reduce the volume of crime. The sta- 
bilization of industry, with the consequent elimination of wide-spread unem- 
ployment, will contribute powerfully to the same result. The psychological 
and psychiatric study of the delinquent, which is now only in its infancy, may 
be expected to equip us with new methods of handling an increasingly large 
percentage of those who now find their way into jail. It would seem, therefore, 
that the present is a time for caution, for an expectant attitude and for tenta- 
tive, rather than for confident, final action. The one conclusion that stands 
out with perfect distinctness is that an enlightened community cannot continue 
the present policy of drift with respect to the jail problem; that the authorities 
of the city and county can, with their present resources, promptly reduce the 
jail population by at least one-half, and that this should be our immediate aim. 

The question of the size of the proposed new jail is further affected by the 
following conclusions which, it is believed, this survey has established: 

First. That a jail, which is primarily a place of detention for those who 
are presumably innocent of wrong-doing, is no place for convicted offenders. 
It is improper, as well as unnecessary, to give to a house of detention the char- 
acter of a prison by using it as a place of punishment for lawbreakers. As soon 
as possible, by amendment of the law where necessary, all convicted offenders of 
the class now committed to the County Jail should hereafter be committed to 
the House of Correction: 

Second. That a jail for men is no place for women. All women and girls 
held for the grand jury or for judicial action should be held in a separate deten- 
tion home for women. 

Third. That a jail is no place for the insane, psychopathic and feeble- 
minded or for those suffering from tuberculosis or other serious physcial disease. 
All of these should be committed to institutions where they can receive the 
treatment or the custodial care that their condition may require; and 

Fourth. That a jail where older prisoners are confined is no place for 



(1) Third Annual Report. Chicago Crime Commission (1022), p. 27. 

56 



young boys. All boys under twenty-one years of age should be held in a sepa- 
rate detention home of the type of the Juvenile Detention Home. As these 
constitute approximately twenty per cent of the entire population of the jail, 
their elimination will make a material difference in the size of the population 
to be accommodated in the new jail. 

It is thus that the Jail Survey has endeavored to answer the questions 
submitted by the Board of County Commissioners in their resolution requesting 
the survey: "The question of just what classes of prisoners should be confined" 
in the new jail, and the question "whether or not othei provision than is now 
afforded can be made for certain classes of prisoners." As has been seen, the 
answers fall into three groups : 

1. Suggestions for restricting commitments to those who are, after rigid 
inquiry, found to be presumably guilty of the offenses charged and who cannot, 
whether under a substantial or a personal bond, be safely entrusted with their 
liberty while awaiting trial : 

2. Suggestions for reducing the number of those confined at any one time 
by instituting an efficient method of disposing promptly of their cases ; and 

3. Suggestions for breaking up the large, unwieldy unit, known as the "jail 
population," into a number of smaller and more manageable units, by distribu- 
ting the prisoners among a number of separate, specialized places of detention. 

What is proposed, therefore, is not so much "a plan for a new jail," as a 
new program for dealing with those suspected or accused of violations of law 
and particularly a new system of detention for Cook County. It is only this 
last that needs to be further considered. 

2. The "New Jail" 

It will probably be convenient, in outlining the proposed new system of 
detention, to deal first with the smaller units of detention. 

(1) Woman's Detention Home 

The comprehensive report of Mrs. Rich on the detention of the woman 
offender sets forth in detail, not only the reasons for the proposed plan, but the 
details of its execution as well. The smallness of the number involved gives this 
part of the program a quality of definiteness which the others lack. It is not 
likely that, for many years to come, provision will have to be made for over a 
hundred women at one time, and this number, as will be seen, includes those 
now habitually confined in the police stations as well as those in the County Jail. 

Briefly, it is proposed that the county authorities for this purpose make 
use of the building and grounds of the present Juvenile Detention Home on 
Gilpin Place, which is to become vacant on the completion of the new detention 
quarters for the Juvenile Court, in the fall. This has ample accomodations for 
the number of women who may need to be detained and can, at comparatively 
small expense, be remodeled and equipped for the purpose intended. 

The project of a central detention home for women, which should take 
the place of the police lock-ups as well as of the women's quarters in the jail, is 
an old one in Chicago and has for many years been studied and urged on the 
attention of the authorities by groups of interested women, by the Woman's 

57 



City Club and by other organizations interested in the welfare and the rehabili- 
tation of the women offender. The acute stage which has been reached in the 
jail situation and the suggestion of the County Board that special provision 
might well be made for certain classes of prisoners, seems to present a favorable 
opportunity for carrying this project into effect without further delay. 

The fact that "city prisoners" from the police stations are included in the 
project along with "county prisoners" from the jail furnishes no real obstacle 
to the plan. This is made clear in the analysis of the problem which Mrs. 
Rich's report presents. 

It is, therefore, proposed that the plan recommended in this report be 
adopted. 

(2) Boys' Detention Home 

The argument for the provision of a separate detention place for boys 
under twenty-one years of age has been given at length in a previous section 
of this report. As is there pointed out, it is the next and most imperative step 
in the campaign for crime prevention which was so successfully inaugurated 
by the Juvenile Court, twenty years ago. The present emergency in the war- 
fare against crime and in the jail, which reflects the condition of the struggle 
being waged outside, makes this the appropriate time for such a solution. It is 
proposed, therefore, that the place of confinement of these young offenders 
shall be a detention home and not a jail. Instead of a single structure of the 
cell-block type, it should be a group of buildings of an unpretentious sort, 
neither monumental in character nor jail-like in appearance, erected on an 
ample piece of ground. The site should, if possible, be selected with reference 
to the completion of the project of the new Boys' Court already noted in this 
report. If this is not deemed feasible at the moment, the buildings should be 
erected on a part of the land selected as the location of the central jail. 

The suggestion that the Boys' Detention Home shall comprise a group of 
buildings is based on the view that in no other way can the necessary classifica- 
tion, separation and treatment of the various grades of intelligence and character 
that make up the group be made effective. It is important that the physical 
aspect of the Home shall reflect its real purpose, which is not only to secure de- 
tention but training, as well. 

(3) The Central House of Detention 

Is it too much to hope that the word "jail," with all its infamous associa- 
tions, shall be banished from the vocabulary of this community? The shameful 
history of the jail and the conditions that have given it its evil name have been 
pointed out in an earlier part of this report. Our attitude toward a thing is so 
largely determined by the name we employ to describe it that it will be ex- 
tremely difficult to make a "jail" anything but the thing it has always been — a 
place of oppression and disgrace. But it is unjust to put the stigma of disgrace 
on a person who may in fact be innocent of wrong-doing, who has at least an 
even chance of proving that he was unjustly accused. The only thing that 
confinement in a jail proves is that the prisoner was too poor to buy his liberty. 
It would seem that if the new place of detention is really to be a new thing, it 
must slough off the name, as well as the fact implied in the name, of the jai). 

5S 



It is, therefore, proposed that the central house of detention shall be so designated. 

In proposing a new type of detention house in a new location, the Survey 
is aware that it is disappointing the expectations of many people who have 
been concerned to find a satisfactory solution of the jail problem. It has been 
assumed that the new jail should be a building of the usual forbidding type, 
which would cause the passer-by to shudder and should have upon the person 
committed the effect of the inscription which Dante read over the portals of 
hell: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." It has also been assumed that it 
should be a great structure of the monumental sort, rising in many stories 
above a place of justice in which the Criminal Court, the State's Attorney, the 
Sheriff's office and all the other formidable agencies of criminal justice shall find 
place. 

This conception has the merit of a certain unity and simplicity and the 
attractiveness of architectural dignity. It would be an impressive public 
building. But it has the great defect of sacrificing the real spirit and purpose of 
detention to the old conception of the jail. It is true that in the latest plans for 
a structure of this type, the cells are a great improvement, both in size and 
arrangement, over those in the older jails and make possible a proper ventila- 
tion and in some cases the admission of sunlight. They may also afford a cer- 
tain opportunity for the classification and separation of prisoners, by placing 
them on different floors of the building. But, by reason of their uniform cell- 
block construction, their rigidity and the unnatural, artificial life to which the 
inmates are condemned, they are still jails — glorified jails indeed, but still of 
the old inflexible type. Only one kind of treatment is possible in them, for all 
alike: The iron-discipline of the present county jail. How this type of treat- 
ment affects the unfortunate inmates who are subjected to it, the effect it has 
had in standardizing the life of all at the level of the worst, has been described 
in a previous section of this report. May we not say that the jail of the cell- 
block and the "bull-pen " has had its day and that this community will never have 
another? 

Another serious objection to this type of structure is its permanent char- 
acter. It assumes to determine what the Chicago of 1972, or the year 2022, will 
want in the way of detention quarters and invests millions of dollars on that 
hazardous assumption. It fixes in stone or steel and concrete our present lack of 
wisdom with respect to the treatment of the accused and imposes our poor, 
futile methods on generations to come. The world of fifty or one hundred years 
from now will build its own life out of the materials of its own time and it 
will be only modest on our part to let it build its own jails, if it is un- 
lucky enough to have them. Manifestly the same considerations are applicable 
to this question of the type of building to be erected as were urged above in dis- 
cussing the jail population of the future. Our vision is limited to our own time 
and to the few years immediately ahead. We don't know and we cannot fore- 
cast what methods of detention and of treatment of those detained will be de- 
manded by another generation. All signs indicate that a new era in the treat- 
ment of the delinquent is at hand. For the first time in human history the 
humanitarian movement, which is at the bottom of the sentiment against the 
present Cook County jail, is being reinforced or supplemented by a scientific 
study of the problem of delinquency. What that study will disclose to our 
successors we cannot guess. All we can do is to leave them a free hand in solving 

50 




itsa 

e 

• c " 

e 
— >■ 



' it 






their own problems. They won't thank us if we force our ignorant solutions 
on them. 

This is so vital in its bearing on the problem under consideration that it 
will bear one or two illustrations. The present jail is an inheritance from a not 
very remote past. When, in 1894, the old jail being then only twenty years old, 
public opinion demanded a new and better type of jail, the location and struc- 
ture of the older building forced the community to accept an addition of the 
identical type of the old; and it is only now, thirty years after the agitation 
commenced, that it has been found possible to devise and erect a better type of 
jail. Sing Sing Prison in New York was erected in 1827-8, and at the time it 
was built was regarded as the last word in prison construction. As far back as 
1840, an agitation existed for its demolition and the erection of a prison of a more 
humane type. But it was built to last and it is still standing, a monument to the 
barbarism of the past and to the inertia of the generations that have succeeded 
that of the builders. Can any one doubt that if a judicious earthquake had laid 
Sing Sing low in 1840 and the Cook County Jail in 1894, we should all be better 
off than we are today? 

There is another aspect of the older, cell-block type of building that should 
be referred to, and that is the atmosphere which it fosters. A jail of the cell- 
block type is a prison, however many "modern improvements" may go with it. 
A man confined in a cell is a different man from the one who is shut up in a 
room or dormitory. A man who governs a cell-block prison or jail is a different 
man from the one who governs a state school for boys or a juvenile or adult 
detention home. The house in which one lives and rules makes the man even 
more than do the clothes he wears. The influence is a subtle one but not the 
less powerful on that account. No one, whether governor or inmate, can with- 
stand it. The one type of structure breeds contempt, tyranny and oppression 
in the master; servility, shame, resentment and loss of self-respect in the pri- 
soner. The other makes possible, at least, a more equal and human relationship, 
with helpfulness and understanding on the one hand; self-respect, confidence 
and co-operation on the other. Whether these results shall be obtained or not 
in the most favorable type of building will, of course, depend on the man se- 
lected to head the institution; but the builders will have done their work if such 
fruits of the spirit are made possible in the new house of detention. 

For these many reasons it has not been deemed wise to recommend the 
erection of a jail of the type above described, but to urge, instead, the con- 
struction of buildings of a less durable and pretentious character and "with as 
little of the prison aspect as possible. Instead of one building to house the entire 
population, there should, as in the case of the Boys' Detention Home, be a group 
of buildings erected on a sufficient area of land to provide for expansion in the 
future. It is estimated that not less than eight or ten acres of land will be re- 
quired for this purpose, if the Boys' Detention home is erected on the same 
tract; otherwise, between seven and eight acres, the equivalent of two average 
city blocks, would probably be adequate. The location of the site should be in 
as close proximity to the Criminal Court building as possible. 

Obviously the type of buildings recommended could not be erected in the 
same block with the court. This will seem to many a serious objection to the 
plan. The immediate proximity of the jail and the court house has existed so 

61 



long that it has come to be regarded as a natural and inevitable combination. 
The best that can be said for it, however, is that it is convenient, but this is not 
a consideration that should stand in the way of a salutary improvement in the 
system of detention. It is clear that the prevalent impression of the danger 
of conveying a man from detention to the court and back again is an illusion. 
The prisoner is arrested by a policeman and taken through the streets to the 
poliee court, kept over night, it may be, in the station, and conveyed to the jail 
the next day. It is not easy to see why, after a few weeks or months in jail, 
he should have been transformed into a desperate character whom it is unsafe 
to take out into the street. Considering the character of the jail population, 
the number of those who would need to be handcuffed in going through or across 
the street must be very small, indeed. However, if a couple of city blocks 
opposite the Criminal Court Building could be secured as a site for the House 
of Detention, the difficulty could be met by constructing a bridge or tunnel 
over or under the street. 

In the foregoing outline of the style of detention quarters to be provided, 
three points have been mentioned which should be more fully explained. These 
are the provision of a group of several buildings of moderate size instead of a 
single big building; the avoidance of the cell-block type of construction, and 
the need for a considerable area of ground. 

1. As to the first of these, the object is the same as that of the similar 
plan proposed for the Boys' Detention Home, to provide a flexible and adapt- 
able arrangement for the complete separation of the prisoners into groups, each 
of which shall constitute a distinct community, with its own living quarters, its 
own play-ground and its own school and work equipment. By a judicious 
selection of the individuals composing these groups, not only will the clean- 
minded and decent be effectually shielded from the contaminating influence of 
the vicious and depraved, but the treatment appropriate to each group can 
easily be devised and applied. There will be groups where the honor system or 
some form of self-government may wisely be employed and where the men may 
for the most part be left to themselves ; there will be others where a more vigi- 
lant supervision is necessary. These possibilities, so important for the future 
well-being of the prisoners as well as for the good order and discipline of the 
institution as a whole, can only be worked out in separate buildings of the 
cottage type and in separate recreation and work places. 

2. The type of detention buildings here recommended leaves no room 
for the cell-block, but the question still remains whether the cell can wholly be 
eliminated from such an institution. Probably not. There will, doubtless, 
have to be cells, not, as now, for the general population, but for the small num- 
ber of dangerous or desperate characters. The number of these cells need not 
exceed fifty and, if they are used only to secure those whose known character 
justifies such extraordinary precaution, it is safe to say that most of them will 
be empty most of the time. Generally the buildings will be equipped with 
single bed-rooms and with dormitories accomodating not more than thirty 
men each, with a sitting or reading room and with a gymnasium and baths in 
the basement. Does this program invite the criticism that it means "pamper- 
ing" or "coddling" criminals? The short answer is that these men are not 
criminals. 

3. The area of land demanded is, as has been said, required for future 



expansion, but it is even more needed to furnish healthful opportunity for 
work and play for the prisoners. Gardening and other out-door work should be 
provided as well as opportunities for baseball and other sports of social char- 
acter. With a sufficient wall about the entire enclosure it is believed that only 
a reasonable amount of official supervision will be required to prevent disorder 
or escapes. 

It ought not to be necessary to add the comment that, in view of the oft 
reiterated fact that the confinement of the inmates, instead of their release on 
bail, is due solely to their poverty, and of the further fact that a large propor- 
tion of them are in fact innocent of any wrong-doing, their detention should be 
made as little irksome as possible and that every precaution should be taken 
to safeguard their health and general well-being. 

The plan here submitted for a general house of detention to take the place 
of the present jail is based on the assumption that it is better to spend money 
for land than for buildings. It has the further recommendation that the initial 
expense, over and above the cost of the land, will be small and that the several 
buildings composing the plant can be erected from time to time as needed. 
A beginning should, of course, be made as soon as funds are available and the 
land secured. The first cottages to be erected can at once be filled by transfer 
of the more trustworthy prisoners from the jail, and thus, as the work proceeds 
and more buildings are completed, further selected groups can be transferred 
until the jail is emptied. By this means the reduction of the jail population will 
be well under way long before a jail of the usual type is half done. 

This process should not, of course, be unduly delayed. The reason for 
urging a gradual, instead of an immediate, completion of the plan is the un- 
certainty as to the number that must be provided for. The immediate and 
continuous reduction of the numbers held in detention in Cook County is, it 
will be remembered, an essential part of the program. If this plan is fully 
worked out through the co-operation of the courts, the grand jury and the 
State's Attorney, five or six cottages, accomodating, say, sixty men each, may 
prove to be sufficient for a good many years to come. 

It is, perhaps, the flexible character of this plan, its adaptabilty to new 
conditions as they arise, that constitutes its chief recommendation. There is no 
alternative but the impossible one of building a jail on a guess as to the number 
of cells that will be required. 

4. Criminal Court Building 

A word should be added with respect to the inadequate and insanitary 
accomodations provided the court in the Criminal Court building. Former 
plans for the new jail contemplated the erection of a building which should 
also make provisions for the court, the Sheriff's office, the State'sAttorney's 
office and the other agencies concerned in the administration of criminal justice 
in the county. This seems to be implied in the preamble to the resolution of 
the Board of County Commissioners inviting the Chicago Community Trust 
to undertake this Survey, where the question is raised "as to just what judicial 
and governmental agencies shall be housed in the projected new structure or 
structures." 

The conclusions to which this Survey has led have, it is seen, rendered such 

f,3 



a solution impossible. It will of course be feasible, if sufficient land can be 
secured for both purposes, to erect a building for the Criminal Court on the same 
tract with the Central House of Detention. If this is not deemed advisable, 
the court could obtain the necessary facilities by utilizing the site of the present 
jail for the erection of a substantial addition to the present Criminal Court 
Building. If and when the unified court of Chicago becomes a reality, the 
number of judges dealing with criminal cases will be considerable increased. 
In that event it may be desirable to use the sites of both the Criminal Court 
Building and the jail for a new court house which will be adequate to the 
transaction of all the criminal business of the enlarged court. But this is a 
matter beyond the competence of the Jail Survey and can safely be left to 
the judgment of those immediately concerned — the judges of the Criminal 
Court. 

III. THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD JAIL 

The old jail is still with us and it is still a problem. The new detention 
system, however hopefully we may await it, is still only a project. In the 
meantime the conditions which have been so abundantly set forth in this report 
continue to exist and the process of poisoning the souls and bodies of the pri- 
soners goes on. It is obvious that everything possible should be done to miti- 
gate these conditions without loss of time, without waiting for the new detention 
plan to become a reality. 

The evils to be remedied fall into two classes. Those resulting from the 
overcrowding, and those affecting the physical and living conditions in the cells 
and bull-pens of the jail. 

It is respectfully recommend that these shall be dealt with as follows : 

1. Relief op Over-Crowding 

First, that the overcrowded condition prevailing in the jail shall be reliev- 
ed by the following measures:. 

1. By transferring the prisoners undergoing sentence in the institution, as 
far as is possible, to the House of Correction. 

2. By utilizing the Juvenile Detention Home in Gilpin Place as a separate 
place of detention for women, and, as soon as the necessary alterations can be 
effected, transferring to it all the women held in the jail for court action. 

3. By securing control of the John Worthy School for Boys on the Work- 
house grounds, and, as soon as the necessary alterations can be completed, 
transferring to it as many of the boys and younger inmates of the jail as the 
building will accomodate. 

4. By ascertaining, through a rigid medical examination of the prisoners, 
all those who are insane, psychopathic, feeble-minded, tuberculous or otherwise 
unfitted by disease to remain in the jail, and transferring them to the Cook 
County Hospital or other suitable institution for custody and treatment. 

The importance and feasibility of these proposals, have, with one excep- 
tion, been made clear in preceding sections of this report. It is believed that 
the only one that requires justification is the third, relating to the proposed use 
of the John Worthy School. 

The importance of some radical action to relieve the conditions of over- 
crowding in the jail became evident at the outset of this inquiry and was 

64 



strongly confirmed by Mr. Lane's study. It was obvious that the most offensive 
conditions affecting the health, the moral tone and the general welfare of the 
prisoners resulted from this state of affairs. It was also obvious that half-way 
measures, like the removal of the women, the prisoners serving sentence and 
those mentally and physically diseased, would do very little to relieve the situa- 
tion. A more wholesale reduction was necessary if the jail was to be materially 
improved. 

In order to deal wisely with this difficult situation Mr. John L. Whitman, 
the State Superintendent of Prisons, was called into consultation. Mr. Whit- 
man's previous successful experience, as warden of the County Jail, and Superin- 
tendent both of the House of Correction and the John Worthy School, while the 
latter was used as a reformatory for delinquent boys, gave him special qualifi- 
cations for the task which he generously undertook. The result of his study 
of the problem is set forth in the report on the Disposal of the Surplus popula- 
tion of the Jail which is appended hereto. This sets forth so fully and per- 
suasively the arguments for the use of the John Worthy School for the contem- 
plated purpose that it is unnecessary to recapitulate them here. It is sufficient 
to say that the structure, which is now unused and empty, can at a moderate 
expense and in a very short time be adapted to the use of the jail as an annex 
to take care of approximately 200 prisoners. These, added to the women, the 
sentenced inmates and the others- above specified, will make a total of 300 or 
more that may conveniently be withdrawn from the jail population. The result 
of this would be a marked improvement in the tone and temper as well as the 
general living conditions of the jail population and would make possible a better 
classification of the remaining inmates and some mitigation of the severity 
which now characterizes the discipline of the institution. 

It is proposed that the prisoners to be transferred shall be selected by the 
jailer, Captain Westbrook, on the basis of their good behavior and trust- 
worthiness. It is expected, however, that, with only a few exceptions, the boys 
under 21 years of age will be found available. If these do not fill all the avail- 
able space, others can be supplied from the large number who are just over 21. 

2. Improvement in Living Conditions 

With the cells and bull pens relieved of their congested condition, special 
attention can be given to such vital matters as increasing the recreation periods, 
which at present allow the prisoners only four hours out of the twenty-four 
outside their insanitary cells, furnishing incentives and opportunities for work 
in the cells and introducing less primitive methods of feeding the inmates. The 
reports of Mr. Lane, of Doctors Preble and Miller and of the Committee on 
Jail Diet contain other recommendations for improvements that should be 
made without delay in the n edical and hospital service, in ventilation, in the 
preparation and serving of food and in many other matters. These all h ve to 
do with the present jail and can all be carried into effect by the present jailer if 
he is supported in his efforts by the County authorities. 

Reference has been made above to the way in which an old institution that 
has long outlived its usefulness will hang for years about the neck of a com- 
munity and paralyze every effort to get rid of it and substitute something 
better. The converse of this is also true. A dream of something better will 

65 



often benumb the purpose to improve the hateful conditions that we wish to 
destroy. Sing Sing prison could never have been made fit for human habitation 
but it could and would long ago have been materially improved but for the 
fact that for twenty years the New York Legislature has promised a new and 
better prison in lieu of the old. 

This community must not make a similar mistake. A thousand men, 
women and children are being subjected to the soul and body defiling conditions 
of the old jail every year. Every day that these conditions continue is an added 
reproach to the community that tolerates them. The reformation of the old 
jail is only second in importance to the creation of the new detention system. 

There is no danger, however, that the former will stand in the way of the 
latter. No one need fear that the jail will be so improved as to make it a rival 
of the hope that inspired this survey. It is doomed, not only by the conditions 
which have made it a by-word in the community, but even more by the fact 
that, in its very structure, it represents the dead past instead of the living 
present. 

In various parts of the present report and in the several special reports 
which are incorporated with it, numerous suggestions and recommendations 
have been made for the improvement of conditions in the present jail and with 
respect to the proposed new detention system. These are all, it is believed, of 
value and importance and, therefore, "worthy of all acceptation." It has not 
been deemed wise to take these out of the context and present them all together 
in summarized form. Offered by themselves they might prove more terrifying 
than convincing. Read in connection with the facts and arguments support- 
ing them, they will, it is believed, have a persuasive effect. There is no 
danger that they will be ignored or forgotten by those who have at heart the 
welfare of the victims of the present system and of the community that bears 
the burden of it. 

NOTE 

ON 

JAIL RECORDS AND REPORTS 

The statistical material on which this report is- mainly based was compiled 
from a great variety of records, principally those of the County Jail. These 
were found to be of such a character that it proved to be impossible to secure 
much of the information desired, such as facts regarding the prisoner's social 
and economic status, his previous criminal record, if any, and his medical and 
disciplinary treatment while in jail. On the other hand, the facts of which the 
jail records take cognizance were so recorded as to make the process of getting 
at them extremely difficult and in many cases impossible. 

In addition to these defects, which are of interest primarily to the investi- 
gator and student of criminal conditions, it was found that the records were 
defective from the administrative point of view. There was no way in which a 
jail officer, or any one else whose business it was to inquire, could secure a 
prompt, accurate and complete statement of the legal status and detention 
record of a given person now in the jail or who had previously been detained. 

For these reasons it was determined to make a study of jail records, here 
and elsewhere, with the view of suggesting a record-keeping system for use in 

c.() 



the Cook County jail which should, as far as possible, be free from the defects 
of the present system. 

Such a study was accordingly made by Mrs. Kenneth F. Rich and Mr. A. L. 
Beeley of the jail survey and the results are herewith submitted in the form of a 
separate report on "Jail Records and Reports." The report suggests new forms 
for use in the jail, copies of which are attached. 

It is hoped that these may not only place the important matter of record- 
keeping on a more satisfactory basis in the Cook County Jail, but that it may 
prove to be a contribution to the much needed system of keeping criminal 
records which students of the crime problem are anticipating as a basis for a 
comprehensive system of criminal statistics. 



i : 



COOK COUNTY JAIL 



Its Physical Characteristics and 
Living Conditions 

By 
WINTHROP D. LANE 

Author of the Revised Edition of Wines' 
"Punishment and Reformation". 



Formerly specialist in Penology for The 
Survey Magazine. 



CONTENTS 



I. Population and Living Conditions- 

Introductory 

Plan of Construction 

Exercise and the "Bull Pens" 

Living in the Cells 

Compulsory Idleness 

Uncleanliness 

Lack of Ventilation 

Poverty of Daily Life 

"Workers" and "Runners" 

Recommendations 

II. Diet and Food Service — 

General 

Breakfast 

Dinner 

Supper 

The Jail Bread 

The Jail Coffee 

Some Damaging Facts 

The Store 

Food Sent in from the Outside 

Recommendations 

III. Barber Shop Concession — 



IV. Guards — 

V. Classification of Prisoners — 

Importance of Classification 
Present Method of Classification 
Objects of New Classification 
Recommendations 



Til 



I. POPULATION AND LIVING CONDITIONS 

Introductory 

The jail of Cook County is an overcrowded, insanitary, disease- 
breeding place. Located on the southwest side of West Illinois Street, between 
Clark and Dearborn; it was built in part in 1872 and in latter part in 1895. 
The section added in 1895 is still called the "new jail," and the other the "old 
jail." The jail is directly behind the Criminal Court building across an enclosed 
bridge suspended between the two. 

Like all county jails, it is a catch-all for persons accused of crime. A small 
number of people who have been convicted of minor offenses serve short sen- 
tences there. However, by far the greater number of its inmates are merely 
undergoing detention, awaiting their day in court. The only test of confinement 
in its overcrowded cells is, in effect, a financial one. Those escape it whose re- 
sources, either in money or friends, are sufficient to enable them to raise bail. 
More well-to-do offenders may spend a night or two in it while arrangements for 
bail are being made, and some people are there whose offenses are such that no 
bail is accepted by the courts. But for the most part, the jail is inhabited by the 
poor. 

As large as many prisons for people actually convicted of crime, the jail 
has a population varying these days from eight hundred to more than a thou- 
sand; over ten thousand passed through its doors last year. The length of 
stay ranges from a night to more than a year. Many men and women are held 
there for months while their cases are being dragged slowly through the courts. 

Who are the people confined there? The real facts are hard to get from 
the records compiled in jail and court. Among its population are boys who 
have hopefully come to Chicago from the country and from smaller cities and 
whose only offense is that they have kept bad company and fallen under sus- 
picion in consequence. Women who have obtained money under false pretenses 
are confined simultaneously with men charged with bigamy and embezzlement. 
Youths are held there for having received stolen property, as are men who have 
committed murder. Among the hundreds in jail are husbands awaiting trial 
for failure to support their wives and children, persons charged with adultery, 
vagrants, bootleggers, rapists, delinquent fathers and sodomists. 

The first offender is confined with the man or woman whose prison sen- 
tences outrun memory in number. The uneducated are housed with the gradu- 
ates of professional and technical schools. Painters, steamfitters, photogra- 
phers and railway conductors are confined with physicians, restaurant- keepers, 
detectives, clerks and telegraph operators. Men with the broken accent of 
of Italy and Turkey occupy cells side by side with native-born English-speaking 
Americans. The Confucian even finds himself open to argument with the 
Baptist and the Christian Scientist. 

71 



The only common bond among all these people is that most of them, as 
already noted, are awaiting trial. They have not been convicted of the offenses 
with which they are charged. So far as the law is concerned, they are still 
innocent. Indeed, many of them will be ultimately acquitted or discharged 
without being brought to trial. Of 807 persons in the jail on December 1st, 1920, 
only 464, or 57.5 per cent, were ever found guilty, the remaining 42.5 per cent 
were either acquitted or their cases were disposed of in some other way. 

Prisoners spend months in the county jail in cells that are no better than 
containers of foul air. Here two, three, four, and even five men are crowded 
into space that is hardly adequate for one. Except during four hours each day, 
when they are herded into dimly lighted, poorly- ventilated "exercise-rooms," 
where exercise is out of the question, they live, move and have their being in 
these cells. No work, no education, no opportunity for useful or healthful 
activity of any sort is provided them, they spend their days in idleness. At 
night they sleep on narrow bunks slung from the wall or on mattresses laid on 
the cement floor. They are subjected to a jail diet that is monotonous and re- 
pellent; from which they find escape, if they have the money, in food purchased 
from a private restauranteur operating in the jail, or such as may be sent in to 
them by their families or friends. They use blankets that may not have been 
washed for years, and dirt surrounds them on every side. When they become 
sick they are nursed by two male prisoners who never had any medical ex- 
perience in their lives before, though there is a physician and assistant phy- 
sician to look after the more serious cases. For months, these are the con- 
ditions that they undergo. There are men in the county jail who have not seen 
out-of-doors in a year. There are others who, day after day, for months at a 
stretch, perform all of their acts by artificial light and forget that the sun's rays 
exist. 

Plan of Construction 

The plan of construction of the county jail is simple. The new jail will be 
first described. Imagine a large stone-walled building, the walls rising to a 
height of seventy or eighty feet. The floor of this building is cement, and on the 
floor stands a "block," or row, of cells, thirteen in number. These cells are 
built of steel. They are placed side by side, but without door or hinge of any 
sort. Each cell is ten feet long, five feet wide and seven and one-half feet 
high. The cells open at the end opposite the barred grating, a small sliding door 
of solid steel being in this end. Facing this row of cells is a second row, exactly 
like it, the ends with the doors confronting the doors of the opposite cells and 
the barred gratings being placed toward the windows in the opposite wall. 
These two rows of cells thus form two sides of a rectangular area on the floor of 
the enclosure. The distance between the two rows is seventeen feet. Each end 
of the inner rectangular area is enclosed by heavy grating. The length of this 
space is sixty-five feet. It is roofed over at a. height approximately of that of the 
cells. This small, cramped, enclosed area is almost totally dark except for 
electric lights in the ceiling and outside the barred grating at the ends. It is 
the "exercise yard" of the prisoners. Into it the prisoners step from their cells 
when their doors are opened for them. Back into their cells they go when the 
exercise period is over. This movement back and forth from cell to "bull-pen," 

72 



as the exercise area is called, and from "bull-pen" to cell, is the only movement 
the prisoners have, except on days when they go to court, when they take their 
weekly baths, when they have visitors and on other such special occasions. 

This set of two rows of cells opening into an inner "bull-pen" is thus the 
unit of construction of the "new" jail. The reader must now place one set of 
rows upon another in order to complete the picture of the interior of this, the 
larger, section of the Cook County jail. Except as described below, each set of 
rows, or tier, of cells, has its own bull pen, thus constituting a separate and 
distinct floor in the jail. There are seven tiers, reaching almost to the roof, an 
eighth or top floor being devoted to purposes that will be described later. The 
space between the cells and the windows is not divided by floors, except be- 
tween the fourth and fifth -tiers of cells. Moreover, the first and second tiers 
of cells open into a common "bull pen"; the second tier has a balcony running 
around the side of the "bull pen" and leading to the floor by stairways. The 
sixth and seventh tiers also open into a common "bull pen." The ceilings of 
these "bull pens" are correspondingly higher than those of the others. 

The arrangement is somewhat different in the old jail, whose walls are 
built of brick, and which is lower than the new building. Here two rows of 
cells are placed back to back in the center of the floor, a corridor running 
entirely around them. This corridor lies between the cells and the outside 
walls : it is the only unoccupied floor space. Each row contains seventeen cells. 
There are four tiers in the old jail, reaching to the ceiling. The cell is open at 
the outer end, the door being made of barred grating. Ventilator holes are at 
the top and bottom of the inner end of the cell, but the intake for air in the 
basement has recently been closed up so that the ventilating system installed 
years ago does not work. Each cell is eight feet long, six feet wide and eight 
feet high, the cubic air space measuring, therefore, 384 feet. One stretch of the 
corridor is used as an exercise area or "bull-pen," this being 118 feet long and 
19 feet wide. 

Exercise. and the "Bull-Pens" 

The "bull-pens" are overcrowded, poorly lighted, bare. When the jail 
is as full as it is now, and there seems to be little reason to expect a diminution 
in its numbers in the near future, between a hundred and fifty and two hundred 
men are herded into some of the "bull-pens" in the new jail, measuring, it will 
be remembered, sixty-five by seventeen feet; three and four hundred use the 
"bull-pen" in the old jail. Practically no light from the windows reaches these 
inner areas; their cement -floored, low-ceilinged spaces become intolerably 
hot in summer. There is absolutely nothing in the "bull-pen" for exercise or 
recreation; not a bench or a stick of any description is to be found. 
Here prisoners stay four hours every day; they may not remain in their cells 
on any excuse. In one end of each of the new jail "bull-pens" is an open drain 
in the floor, around which the men circulate freely, and which is used as a urinal. 
Efforts are made to keep this deodorized by fresh applications of chloride of 
lime. The inmates as they stand and circulate about the "bull-pen," spit on 
the floor until it becomes too filthy to bear description. To see these men herded 
in these areas is to have the sense of a mob, a mob that is likely to become un- 

73 



governable at any time. The men sit on the floor or lean against the walls, 
talking; they hang on to the chains that extend across the "bull pens" at each 
end and keep them away from the grated walls ; they form in close masses and 
play such games as "How many fingers up?", the object of which is to see how 
many persons one man can hold on his back at once, or leap frog. They make a 
double line and walk slowly around one end of the "bull-pen" in a circle, wedging 
their way in and out among those who are standing about. The congestion is so 
great that a man can hardly move without touching his neighbor. Sometimes 
they shout boisterously and shove one another roughly, though in play. Before 
the two hours of each exercise period are over, the air becomes foul and heavy. 
In summer the odor of the men's bodies is strong. Exercise worthy of the name 
is utterly impossible. The place is fittingly named: it is like nothing so much 
as a pen crowded with animals. 

Living in the Cells 

The cell is the man's habitat for twenty hours of the day. It is his home 
while he is in jail. If the reader will measure off, in the room where he is sitting, 
a space the size of one of these cells ten by five feet in the new jail, with a ceiling 
seven and one-half feet high, and eight by six feet in the old jail, with a ceiling 
eight feet high, he will realize what this means. Let him now remember that 
practically none of these cells are occupied singly; there are either two men in each 
cell, or three, or four, or, in the worst periods of overcrowding, five. A conservative 
statement of the amount of air space per person necessary for health is 500 cubic 
feet, as the testimony of physicians elsewhere in this report show. A cell in the 
new jail has 375 cubic feet, one in the old 384. If two men occupy a cell, each 
has approximately 190 cubic feet; if three, 126; if four, 95; and if five, 76. More- 
over, the allotment of 500 cubic feet is based upon a through-and-through 
ventilation or passage of air, and these cells have no such ventilation. 

Not all of the cells are available for prisoners. There are 136 cells in the old 
jail and 144 (exclusive of the 36 in the women's section) in the new, making a 
total of 280. Some of these are used for service purposes. So inadequate is 
the construction of the jail that on some tiers a cell has been set aside for stor- 
ing mops, pails and other articles used in cleaning. One cell serves as an office 
in the old jail; two as special toilets; four for "observation purposes," six as 
"island" cells, i.e., for solitary confinement, and three have until recently been 
assigned to the use of the man who runs the private store. There are thus about 
260 cells available for male prisoners. Assuming that two men in a cell is proper 
housing, which it is not, not all of these are available for doubling up, since some 
of them are set apart for drug addicts, venereal cases, tubercular patients, etc. 
On March 17th, there were 114 cells in the jails with three men in each and 69 
with four men in each. Shortly before some of the cells had contained five men. 

The "island," or row of six cells used for solitary confinement, is on the top 
floor of the old jail. Men are sent to these cells for punishment. The cells are 
open in front. They have no cots, the occupants sleeping on mattresses on the 
floor. The "hole" or single cell used for severer punishment, is in the wing. 
This is equipped with a solid door, which is shut against the occupant, so that he 
has no light and little air. Here he subsists on a bread and water diet and is 
allowed neither mattress nor blanket, sleeping on the stone floor. 

74 




Four prisoner** sleeping in one eell. 

(Flashlight photo by F. P. Burke). 



The cell is the man's living room, dining_room ancLbedroom. In one end of 
it is a stationary toilet. There is also a small wash-basin with running water. 
The beds are slung from the side of the wall, like bunks; they remain protruding 
out into the cell during the daytime, filling half the cell. The jail has become 
so inadequate in capacity that these shelf-like beds, two in number, have been 
removed from many of the cells and three-decker bunks have taken their 
places, an extra space for sleeping thereby being gained. Mattresses are of 
straw; each man is allowed one blanket, a sheet, a pillow slip and a towel. Here 
and there about the, cell, string has been strung up as a place for drying towels, 
shirts and other bits of clothing; small articles are washed in the cell. Each man 
puts his belongings wherever he can find place for them, in his mattress, under 
his pillow, beneath the bed and on the floor, or elsewhere. Sandwiches and 
other food sent in from the outside are cached in such spots, attracting vermin. 
Men lie on the bed, read, talk, write letters crouched on the lower bunk, with 
their shoulders hunched forward to escape the upper bunk, and spend the time 
as best they can. A single electric bulb hanging just outside the cell gives prac- 
tically the only illumination that some cells receive. One must sit close to the 
barred grating to read by it. When three or four men in a single cell try to read 
at. the same time, it is impossible for all of them to crowd close enough to the 
grating to succeed. 

At night conditions are also serious. The air, due to the inadequacy of cell 
ventilation, is likely to become very bad. Overcrowding again leads to dis- 
comfort. If there are as many bunks as there are occupants, all goes well. 
In cells where there are more people than bunks, those who have been in jail 
longest, take the bunks by a kind of right of seniority. The others dispose 
themselves on the cement floor. If the number of extra persons is but one, he 
lays his mattress on the floor clear of the bunks, the space between them and 
the opposite wall being just large enough to permit this. If there are two 
extra people, the second has no choice but to push his mattress under the 
lowest bunk and crawl in on top of it; here, if he is lucky, he will pass the night 
without giving his head a bump, since only a few inches separate it from the 
lower side of the bunk above. 

Compulsory Idleness 

No useful activity or work of any sort is permitted in the cells. This is 
the result, in part, of the fact that persons awaiting trial cannot be compelled 
to work t and, in part, of the fear that any occupation, especially one involving 
the use of implements or tools, would become a cover for attempts to escape dr 
other misconduct. The effect is to condemn these men to a continued and 
enervating idleness. They cannot read and write letters foreA^er. If their 
stay in jail lasted for a few days, or for a week or two, the consequences would 
not be serious, but the stay of most of them is measured by months, instead of 
days or even weeks. There are people who have been in the jail for over a 
year without turning their hands or their brains to a single activity. 
Clandestine attempts at such activity are discouraged. Recently a man con- 
structed a crude but ingenious violin in his cell; he was promptly reprimanded 
and the instrument was taken from him. Another prisoner, a young man, had 
served in the navy and there had learned to make pocketbooks and other 

76 



trinkets with string; a guard discovered him plying his small skill,confiscated 
his product and ordered him to desist. The prohibition is complete and no 
exceptions are allowed. Despite this, attempts at escape are numerous enough. 
There is a well-known maxim to the effect that idleness produces a mind more 
bent on mischief than activity does. Certainly men are more likely to brood 
and grow resentful, to imagine wrongs and to plan vengeance, when they have 
nothing to do, than when they are busy. The difficulty of giving inmates of the 
present jail any opportunity for useful work is one of the strongest arguments 
for a new building. Meanwhile, some method should be devised for permitting 
them to engage in such harmless occupations as they desire while they are con- 
fined in the existing structure. 

Uncleanliness 

The jail is not clean. The floors of the "bull-pens," corridors and other 
open spaces are washed daily by a squad of prisoners and do not present a very 
dirty appearance, but the apparent cleanliness is only superficial. Other places, 
such as the cells, are seldom, if ever, thoroughly cleaned; the dirt of successive 
"generations" of prisoners has accumulated until thorough cleaning would now 
be almost impossible. Vermin constitute the usual menace here as in other 
places of this sort, and when they become too thick a spray is applied to cut 
down their numbers. Incoming prisoners, after being carefully compelled to 
take a bath, put on again the clothing they wore when they entered the jail, so 
that this cleansing process is little more than a polite fiction. Each incoming 
piisoner spends his first night in the receiving wing, where he receives from his 
predecessor, and leaves for his successor, whatever dirt, animal or otherwise, 
was brought in by them. Moreover, the sheets and pillow slips in the cells in the 
receiving wing are changed only once a week, so that it is quite possible for 
six men to use the same bed linen without change or washing; indeed, this 
admittedly often happens. Blankets through the jail generally have been 
washed only when someone thought it ought to be done. There are hundreds 
of blankets in the cells today that have not been washed for two years. A belief 
to the contrary exists in some quarters, but the records in the laundry, faulty 
though they are, do not substantiate the belief, and the testimony of those who 
have most to do with the washing is that only a small number of the blankets 
have been washed in that time. Finally, linen from persons receiving treat- 
ment for venereal disease, from tuberculosis patients, from the hospital and 
from all other sources, is washed in one common mass; no separation is made 
of that used by sick or diseased prisoners from that used by the well. 

Lack of Ventilation 

The deplorable atmospheric conditions of the jail, the foul and heavy air 
resulting from the overcrowding of the cells and bull-pens, to which reference 
has previously been made, is due in large part to the neglect for many years past 
of the most elementary principles of ventilation. Originally provision for venti- 
lating the cells was made. In the old jail, where the cells are back to back, a 
ventilating shaft was constructed up the inner wall, between the two rows; two 
holes, one at the top and one at the bottom of each cell, connected with this 
shaft. This device still remains, but the basement windows, which were the 
intake for the fresh air that was supposed to pass through the shaft, have re- 

77 



cently been bricked up, (all but three of those originally provided were 
bricked up some years ago), so that the shaft is not now fed with fresh air; the 
small amount that reaches it from two small windows in the basement of the 
new jail is negligible. 

A more elaborate ventilating system installed in the new jail has not been 
used for more than eleven years. It was partially torn out and discarded when 
additional windows were built in the walls and forced ventilation was regarded 
by the authorities as no longer necessary; these windows do not, of course, 
secure proper ventilation of the cells themselves. Owing to the great expense 
involved, the restoration of this ventilating system would now be impracticable. 

The present condition should not be allowed to continue. It is strongly 
recommended: 

1. That the intake of fresh air for the ventilating shaft in the old jail be 
restored by either unbricking a sufficient number of the basement windows to 
give an adequate draft, or by providing some other means of securing an intake. 

2. That oxyacetylene or electric torches be used to make holes in the inner 
metal walls of the cells in the new jail, the walls facing the bull pens. The en- 
closure of these cells on three sides, and the lack of a through passage of air 
has already been commented upon. A large number of small holes can either 
be burned through this metal or a single large hole can be made. This hole will 
simply open on to the bull-pen and will not affect the security of the prisoners' 
confinement. It will give through ventilation. The jail engineer says that this 
is entirely practicable and will not entail too disproportionate an expense. 

3. That certain windows, now seldom opened, be opened oftener. 

Poverty of Daily Life 

The daily routine of prisoners shows the poverty of life at the jail. At 
6 :30 in the morning everyone is supposed to rise and dress ; the lights just outside 
the cells are flashed on from a central switch and the day begins. The beds are 
made by the prisoners, each man making his own bed, or, if there are not 
enough bunks or "decks" in his cell to go around, gathering his blankets up 
from the floor where he has been sleeping and placing them in a neat pile. 
Hands and faces are washed at the wash-basin in the cell. Breakfast comes at 
7:15. A gang of prisoners from the kitchen passes along the corridors with large 
cans of coffee ; each can has a spout, and through the barred grating of the cell 
coffee is poured into each prisoner's cup. This cup of coffee, with a roll or one 
or more pieces of bread, comprises the whole breakfast. The roll, or "duffer" 
as it is called, or the bread, is placed on the bars and the prisoner takes it into 
the cell. The coffee is then drunk and the duffer or bread eaten by the men 
siting on their beds or standing. The store, a privately run concession in the 
jail, details about which are given in the section on "Food," supplies coffee 
with milk and sugar in it, and sweet rolls for breakfast. This, of course, is only 
for prisoners who can pay. The store makes its rounds just before the jail 
breakfast is served. 

Breakfast over, the men remain in their cells until 9:30, when the first 
"exercise" period begins. For two hours, or until 11:30, they then congregate 
in the bull-pens; the description of this part of their day has already been 
given. The cells are completely empty during this period, no prisoner being 
allowed to stay, the reason being that the guards are not numerous enough 

78 



to watch the cells while the men are in the bull-pens. As a matter of fact, 
the supervision during the night and at other times is not nearly vigilant 
enough to prevent men from working on their bars with saws or doing other 
things that might be regarded as improper or dangerous from the administra- 
tive point of view. 

When a guard raps loudly at one end of the bull-pen, the exercise period is 
over. The doors from the bull-pens into the cells are then opened and the men 
go back into their cells. The mid-day meal is served immediately. Carts are 
wheeled past the cells along the corridor and from these a pan is served to each 
man; on this, his whole dinner is placed. The pan is shoved along the floor 
under the grating and he receives it inside the cell. Each prisoner is allowed 
two slices of bread at noon, and these are placed upon his cell bars, for him to 
take off. He eats his meal seated upon the bed or standing beside it and resting 
his pan on the blanket in front of him. Odors of food cling to the blanket, and 
this practice of having all meals eaten in the cell adds, of course, to the diffi- 
culty of keeping the cell clean ; not only are bits of food often spilled upon the 
blankets, but vermin are attracted and are hard to get rid of. 

The store operates at noon, also. Since the county supplies no sweet of 
any sort, the storeman finds his best business to lie in providing pieces of pie, 
which the prisoners purchase for dessert; he also peddles at noon, coffee and 
milk in bottles. Many prisoners, as told elsewhere, do not even take the jail 
meal into their cells; they eat whatever may have been sent in to them by 
friends or relatives, or depend upon the offering of the store, scanty though it 
is, expecting to buy more substantial food in the evening, when the store sup- 
plies a more varied choice. 

Afternoon exercise period begins at 1 :30. Again two hours are spent in the 
crowded, badly lighted bull-pens. At 3:30 the men return to their cells. From 
then until 9:30 in the evening there is nothing for them to do. The whole of 
this dreary time is spent in such idle gossip as they can devise, or in brooding 
over their fate, or in writing letters or reading; since the county makes no 
effort to give them anything worth while to read, they are dependent upon the 
daily newspapers or such books or magazines as are sent in to them. The 
crowding of three, four and even five men into a single cell becomes especially 
irksome at this time, since a man can hardly move without touching or in- 
conveniencing another man and the congestion tells on the nerves of all. Irri- 
tation is the inevitable result ; it is surprising that violent outbreaks of temper 
and actual fighting do not occur more often than they do. For six hours men 
who are used to the variety and vigorous movements of a city life, are cooped 
up in a space that any single individual would find confining. They are kept 
there not for those six hours only, but when night comes they stretch out and 
go to sleep on the same spots where they have been sitting all day long. 
They awake in the morning with little opportunity to move, except to sit up 
in the places where they have been lying. And this, be it remembered, is the 
routine not of a few days only, but of weeks and months. This is an utterly 
atrocious and unnecessary situation. It is far better designed to make criminals 
of men, than to induce men to cease being criminals. Something constructive 
should be introduced into their lives during confinement; they should have an 
opportunity to utilize the leisure forced upon them by the county, in ways that 
will strengthen them when they again face the world. 

79 



The cell lights are turned out at 9 :30, and everyone is supposed to go to 
sleep. The day is over, to begin again at 6:30 the next morning when a repeti- 
tion of the routine just described occurs. 

No education, no useful work, no recreation worthy of the name and 
substantially no physical exercise are given these men and boys. They are 
allowed to write as many letters as they want to (provided they have stamps 
and stationery), to receive letters and to be visited two days a week. Religious 
services are held for them on Sunday and they bathe once a week. These are 
the only interruptions of their idleness. A small number of men, as described 
elsewhere, are used in unskilled work about the jail. The religious services, 
held in the bull-pens during the Sunday exercise period, do not enlist the active 
interest of the majority of the prisoners. The men and women, belonging to 
several groups and denominations, who conduct these services, doubtless have 
the welfare of the prisoners at heart, but the services are carried on for the most 
part in a stilted, perfunctory manner and are not calculated to meet either the 
interests or the intelligence of most of the hearers. An opportunity for very 
real service is being missed here. 

That characteristic institution of the American jail, the Kangaroo Court, 
exists here also. Adopted partly as a relief from the monotony of prison life, 
partly to protect the community from the nuisance of nonconformity to its 
requirements, it has here, as elsewhere, degenerated into an instrument, some- 
times of rude justice and occasionally of horse-play. Each bull-pen has its own 
court. Its Chief, or Judge, is usually an old-timer and the minor officials are 
appointed by him. Its proceedings are followed with interest but its meetings 
are too infrequent and its influence too slight to make it an important element 
in the life of the Jail. 

"Workers" and "Runners" 

A small number of prisoners perform the more menial tasks about the 
jail. At present, the number so employed is about sixty-five. They are called 
by two names, "runners" and "workers"; in effect, these correspond to the so- 
called "Trusties" in many jails, i.e., men who are regarded as sufficiently de- 
pendable to be allowed somewhat greater freedom of movement within the 
jail than others, but an aversion to the use of the word "trusty" in the Cook 
County jail has led to the use of the words "runner" and "worker." The run- 
ners are messengers who go from one part of the jail to another with messages. 
The tasks performed by the workers are various. Among them are washing 
down the corridors, stairways, bull-pens, and other parts of the jail; assisting 
in the laundry, kitchen and bakery; helping in the bundle cages, where incoming 
packages are searched for contraband articles; delivering meals to prisoners in 
their cells and collecting uneaten food afterwards ; acting as hospital attendants, 
and working for the store that sells articles to prisoners. Four prisoners work in 
the paint gang and one, who acts as jail tailor, repairs mattress covers, blankets, 
etc. These men take their exercise at other times than the main body of pri- 
soners and so have bull-pens that are less crowded. 

Sentenced men, so long as there are enough to go around, are chosen for 
these tasks. This is partly because they are likely to be in the jail longer and 
partly because, being convicts, the state has a right to require work of them. 

80 



A few persons awaiting trial are called upon for these duties when the number 
serving sentences is not sufficient. 

The use of prisoners for this work is entirely commendable. There are 
plenty of men in the jail, now idle, who would be glad to be similarly em- 
ployed. 

Recommendations 

1. The bull-pens may easily be used for a greater portion of the day than 
at present. Bad as they are, they are better than confinement for twenty 
hours of the day in the cells. A third exercise period might be arranged after 
the evening meal, for example. Again, it would be possible for hah of the pri- 
soners to use the bull pens at one time and half at another time. By devising 
a system of four daily periods — say from 9:00 to 10:30 and from 10:30 to 12:00 
A.M., from 2:00 to 3:30 and from 3:30 to 5:00 P.M., or employing the evening 
hours if necessary — half of the prisoners could occupy the bull-pens for two 
periods and half for the other two. There would be far greater possibilities of 
exercise in this arrangement, since the number in the bull-pens at one time 
would be much reduced; this advantage would, it is believed, more than make 
up for the shortened total period for each man. If more guards are required to 
put such a plan into effect, they should be employed. 

2. When asked what the chief defects of the jail are, a number of prisoners 
replied: "Those who want education should be given some opportunity for it." 
A room admirably fitted for school purposes exists on the eighth floor of the 
new jail. It is called the "school room" because, it was once used for some 
purpose of instruction. A blackboard runs along one wall. 

Many of the younger prisoners are first offenders and find their arrest 
and confinement a period of very serious reflection; they are brought up against 
the hard facts of life in a way that is calculated to make them consider their 
own lives and the future ahead of them. To seize this mood as an opportunity 
for giving them some worthwhile instruction is a chance that the county ought 
not to miss. Classes in the branches of an elementary education and in voca- 
tional and manual work ought to be formed. The Superintendent of Schools, 
Mr. Peter A. Mortenson, heartily approved of this plan when it was suggested 
to him, and thought that it would be possible for a teacher or teachers to be 
supplied. This recommendation, like others in this report, has value for the 
new jail that Cook County so much needs. At present the "school room" is 
used as an exercise space for younger prisoners and is idle all but four hours of 
the day. 

3. It is of the greatest importance either (1) that the prisoners should spend 
as little of the day as possible in their cells, or (2) should be allowed some useful 
way of occupying their hands and minds while there. Although suggestions 
to accomplish the first of these have already been made, it is probable that as 
long as the present jail is retained, many hours of the day will be spent in the 
cells. Some way should be found for giving the prisoners simple tasks to per- 
form in their cells; this labor cannot be compulsory, since all but a few prisoners 
are merely awaiting trial. Some prisoners would now engage in handicraft 
work of various sorts if permitted. Reference has already been made to the 
man who made a violin and the other who made a pocketbook, both being im- 
mediately ordered to desist. There is a fixed rule against anything of this sort 

81 



being done in the cells or anywhere else. The consequence is that prisoners 
resent what seems to them an arbitrary prohibition against harmless activities, 
and an enforced and entirely unnecessary idleness. Occupations of a sort that 
can be carried on in the cramped quarters of a cell have been devised in prisons ; 
many bedside occupations in hospitals might lend themselves to this use also. 
It is strongly recommended that Cook County encourage some of these occu- 
pations among prisoners in the county jail. 

4. There should be greater diversity in the recreational life of the pri- 
soners. Small entertainments, talks and other amusements could be easily ar- 
ranged; these could be both recreational and educational in effect. Occasional 
addresses by outsiders who know how to talk to the class of persons confined in 
the jail could be given in the bull-pens, where religious services are now con- 
ducted. Professional entertainers in Chicago would probably be glad to donate 
their services, if asked. Motion picture shows might be given once a week, or 
oftener, in the school room. 

Talent among the prisoners themselves might be called upon. This is 
successfully done, under proper supervision, in many correctional institutions 
and in a population the size of that of the Cook County jail a number of persons 
capable of entertaining their fellow prisoners would probably be found. Indeed, 
a precedent for this exists in the use of prisoner talent at New Year's enter- 
ta'nments. Singing, humorous monlogues, the acting of comedy parts and 
other diversions could be arranged. 

The handling of this feature of jail life might well be entrusted to a pri- 
soners' committee. This committee could arrange programs, correspond with 
outside entertainers, "discover" local talent among the prisoners, and make 
the necessary arrangements in the jail for holding entertainments. It could be 
given a place to meet. The work of such a committee would have to be closely 
supervised, especially at first, and both tact and ingenuity on the part of the 
jailer would be required to make it a success. 

5. There is a jail yard containing upwards of 4000 square feet. At present 
this is largely unused space, patrol wagons driving in here to discharge prisoners 
and the automobiles of county officials being parked here. Some method could 
be devised for giving prisoners — a large number of selected ones — if not all — 
outdoor exercise in this area. A small expenditure would be necessary to 
make the yard escape-proof. 

6. The serving of meals in the cells should be abolished if possible. 
Boards placed upon standards could be set up in the bull-pens, which could be 
used as mess halls. These tables could then be taken down and put in one end 
of the bull-pens when other activities were going on there. This plan would 
require a willingness to assume a little extra work; most of this could be done, 
however, by prisoners. The importance of doing away with the serving of food 
in the cells, both from the point of view of cleanliness and the general health- 
fulness of the prisoners, justifies overcoming any difficulty that might be en- 
countered. Women prisoners now eat all of their meals in one of their bull-pens. 

7. Better ventilation should be secured, as already pointed out, by (1) 
restoring the intake for fresh air in the old jail, (2) making holes in the inner 
walls of the cells in the new jail, thus affording a through passage of air, and 
(3) opening occasionally some of the windows that now remain closed nearly 
the year around. 

82 



8. There should be more frequent washing of blankets. Every incoming 
prisoner should have clean bed linen. The use of tooth paste or dental wash of 
some kind should be permitted; this is now denied, presumably because the 
introduction of tooth paste into the jail lends itself to the smuggling of dope. 
The jail can issue the tooth paste itself and so guard against that possibility. 

9. Linen from sick prisoners and those undergoing treatment for infec- 
tious and contagious diseases should be washed separately. 

II. DIET AND FOOD SERVICE 

General 

The Cook County jail is typical of institutions of its kind in its treatment 
of the food problem. County jails are still, in most American communities, the 
principal source of income of the sheriff of the county, such income being derived 
from the savings he is able to effect at the expense of the health and comfort of 
the inmates of the jail. Up to a recent period this system operated to add to the 
$6000 salary of the sheriff of Cook County, an illegitimate profit of $30,000 
per annum representing the difference between the amount appropriated for 
feeding the prisoners and the amount actually expended by him for that pur- 
pose. This peculiarly dishonorable species of graft was, after a long fight, led 
by the Citizens' Association of Chicago, abolished by act of the Legislature 
in 1909. Since that time all food supplies for the jail have been purchased by 
the County Board, leaving to the Sheriff only the function of preparing and 
distributing them to the inmates. The manner in which this duty is performed 
is the subject of the present inquiry. 

If it is admitted that the health of prisoners should not be impaired while 
they are in the custody of the county, food becomes one of the most important 
items in their general welfare. For people who are living the abnormal life of 
confinement in the cells of the present jail, diet is especially important; the 
kinds and amount of food needed by them may differ from those needed by 
persons in another environment, but the care taken to make sure that their 
food is adapted to the requirements, should be greater if anything, rather than 
less. It is a common error of custodial and correctional institutions to give 
little thought to the nourishing and palatable qualities of food, and Cook 
County jail has been typically negligent in this matter. Meals are made up in a 
haphazard way, food is cooked and served unappetizingly, essential elements of 
diet are omitted in the name of problematical minor economies, and men suffer 
from the monotony, unattractiveness and actual indigestibility of what they 
eat. 

The consequence is that a private commercial store, lun within the jail 
for profit, makes capital out of the needs of the prisoners. Prisoners are forced 
to buy from it what the county fails to furnish them. This store is a species of 
concession. It overcharges for many articles of food and seems to have become 
a kind of irremovable institution; its presence can even be used as an excuse 
for not giving a jail diet that is more adequate and nourishing. Some foods may 
also be sent in to prisoners by friends or relatives on the outside. 

Breakfast 
As already described, prisoners receive three meals a day. Breakfast con- 
sists solely of a large cup of coffee, made without sugar and with a quantity of 

83 



milk that "hardly changes the color," and bread or a single roll or "duffer." 
The ingredients of these, as itemized by the chief cook and the baker, are given 
later; they are entirely inadequate. No butter and no butter substitute is 
served with the bread or duffer. This is a poor meal with which to start the day. 

Dinner 

The mid-day meal, served between 11:30 and 12.00 is the chief meal. It 
follows a plan of weekly rotation ; that is, the same food is served every Monday, 
the same every Tuesday, etc. This is entirely unnecessary and is due simply to 
the lack of initiative or lack of interest on the part of the jail authorities. It 
adds monotony to the other undesirable features of the regimen. The weekly 
dioners, as given by the chief cook, are as follows: 

Monday — Corned beef hash ; peas. 

Tuesday — Frankfurters; carrots and potatoes. 

Wednesday — Meat stew with macaroni in it. The stew has no vegetables 
and is thickened with flour. Dumplings are usually added to the women's 
portion. 

Thursday — White beans; potatoes and carrots. 

Friday — Fish, usually salmon or cod; always cold storage. The fish is 
baked in cotton seed oil and bread crumbs. Potatoes and hominy complete 
this meal. 

Saturday — Corned beef and cabbage; boiled potatoes. 

Sunday — Beef stew; the vegetables in the stew are usually potatoes, and 
turnips, or either rice or macaroni. 

Vegetables are not always the same; those served on one Monday may 
differ from those served on another Monday, though the above pattern is the 
one largely followed. It will be noticed that there is only one fresh vegetable 
in this layout, cabbage, and that is served only once a week. Two slices of 
bread are added to the noonday meal, but more can be had if wanted. These 
meals are prepared by steaming the food in large cauldrons. That is an easy way 
of cooking; it is unappetizing and, when one subsists for months on food so 
cooked, excessively monotonous. Moreover, nutritive value is lost by this 
process; there should be more baking and roasting of meats. The cook some- 
time braises the meat, which tends to hold some of its tastiness, but in general, 
steaming is altogether too largely resorted to. 

On a day when fish and vegetables constituted the meal, count was taken 
of the number of prisoners who ate it. After the kitchen cart had passed along 
one corridor, the cells were inspected. It was found that of the twenty-six men 
in these cells, twenty refused to eat the fish entirely, not even allowing the 
pans to enter their cells; they were either depending upon food that had been 
sent in from the outside or were expecting to buy from the store in the evening 
and make up the day's sustenance in that way. Of the six who permitted the 
fish to enter their cells, four ate practically none of it. Yet this fish, said one 
of the prisoners, was "better than it most generally is." Another declared 
that he had been in the jail a month and had eaten only one mid-day meal 
during that time; he preferred to spend his money on the store. 

There is an enormous waste of jail foods. Prisoners often push their pans 
back into the corridor with the contents hardly touched or but partially eaten. 
This is costly to the county and shows that the food is not serving its purpose. 

84 



An estimate by the storekeeper placed the quantity of uneaten food sent away 
from the jail every week at between two and three tons; this is given to some 
concern that carts it away and uses it. 

It would well repay the county to investigate the amount and causes of 
this waste and to take steps to diminish it. 

Supper 

The evening meal consisted solely, until recently, of a kind of soup and 
bread. Mr. Westbrook has ordered that coffee, made as in the morning, be sub- 
stituted for the soup three nights a week; the soup is not now served when 
coffee is. The foundation of the soup is invariably split peas, to which is added 
vegetables left over from dinner; beef bones are thrown into it for the sake of 
whatever flavor they may add. The men protested so generally in regard to 
this soup that the substitution of coffee was decided upon. As much bread as 
can be eaten is given to each man, again without butter. 

The Jail Bread 

The bread is not nutritiously made. It and the ' 'duffers' ' are made from the 
same batch of dough, prepared in the jail bakery in the basement. The in- 
gredients of the 1200 pounds of dough constituting one day's batch were item- 
ized by the baker as follows: 750 pounds of flour, described by the baker as 
"not at present of the best quality"; 265 pounds of water; Y^ gallon of milk; 
\ l /2 pounds of sugar; 9 pounds of salt; 6 pounds of yeast; l^ gallons of cotton- 
seed oil. A commercial baker to whom this recipe was shown declared that the 
amounts both of milk and sugar were proportionately far too small; he said 
that the food value of the bread was far below that commonly made by ordi- 
nary bakers. The bread is heavy and quickly grows stale. When taken from 
the oven the loaves are placed upon open racks in the basement, where dust 
can gather upon them. At the time of this investigation the baker was com- 
plaining that rats were getting at the bread during the night; each morning, he 
said, he had to throw away a number of loaves that were partially eaten by 
them. Cockroaches were seen upon the bread also. A large cat used one of the 
racks as a resting place when no bread was on it. 

The one and a half pounds of sugar put into this bread is all the sweet that 
the 900 prisoners receive in their jail food ; they are given no fruit of any kind and 
no other sweet enters into their dietary in any form. Sugar, in proper amount, 
is one of the most essential and cheapest forms of food, as Dr. Preble and Dr. 
Miller point out in their report elsewhere. The failure to provide it is one of 
the most reprehensible neglects in the whole treatment of these inmates. 

The milk, according to the chef, is not good. "Water must get into it 
somewhere along the line," he says. "If there's ever any cream on it, I don't 
ever see it." Powdered milk might well be used in baking bread. It is cheaper, 
cleaner and more nourishing than milk of the quality that is being used. The 
county should not allow itself to be cheated, however, in the quality of milk 
for which it pays. Tests should be made periodically to ascertain the quality 
and to make sure that the milk is up to standard. 

The Jail Coffee 

The coffee is made by using twenty pounds of coffee in 125 gallons. This 

85 



is not enough, thinks the chief cook. He thinks that forty pounds would be 
more adequate. No sugar is used, as already stated. The milk put into this 
quantity of coffee varies from four to six or seven gallons, according to the 
amount in the can when it is delivered to the kitchen; milk for the guards 
coffee usually comes out of the can before the prisoners are served. This milk, 
says the chief cook, "hardly changes the color" of the coffee. He questions 
also the quality of the coffee received; it is likely to be roasted too hard, he says, 
so that when made, the coffee has a bitter taste. An examination of one sack 
tended to bear out this statement. 

Some Damaging Facts 

The chief cook and his two assistants were remarkably frank in talking 
about the quality of food and its preparation. They are paid employes who 
evidently have some professional pride. "We have hardly had a good bean 
to cook lately," said one. "The beans must be very old; sometimes it is im- 
possible to make them soft. Beans should not be eaten unless they are soft." 
The hardness of the beans is a serious fault; it is essential that they should be 
made soft to be digestible. Constipation, indigestion and other physical dis- 
turbances follow the eating of hard beans, and the prisoners complain greatly 
of the amount of constipation they suffer. The life they lead in jail requires 
that their food should be easily digestible, a fact that does not seem to have 
been considered in the county's dietary regimen. "If I could only have a bit 
of pork or ham to cook with the beans," said the chief cook, "they would be 
much more palatable." 

The fish received at the jail was spoken of with especial bitterness by the 
chief cook, as well as by the prisoners. It is prepared in cottonseed oil, pre- 
sumably for the sake of economy; this is likely to give it an offensive odor. All 
the fish used is frozen; sometimes, according to the chef, it has become bad 
when it is cooked. The fish served to the prisoners Friday, March 24th, 1922, 
was received at the jail Wednesday, March 22nd. An inspection of the crates 
in which it came showed that they were marked: "Cold storage, received 
October 25, 1918." The fish had been in cold storage, therefore, for three years 
and five months. "You wouldn't be able to eat the fish sometimes." said the 
cook, "I can't eat it; it ain't fit to eat. The prisoners have to eat it or nothing." 

Macaroni is always cooked without cheese. Nearly all of the beef received 
is chuck beef. One of the assistant cooks said that it is usually very tough. 
"We take the beef that is served to the guards for supper from the same lot that 
goes to to the prisoners," he said. "It is cooked for more than six hours and 
even then it is sometimes tough to chew." 

Butter is served to the prisoners only two or three times a year, on Christ- 
mas and one or two other holidays. With the exception of cabbage, fresh vege- 
tables are practically never given to them; the county poor farm supplied the 
jail with spinach twice last summer. With this source of supply, it seems 
inexcusable that fresh vegetables are not regularly supplied for the use of the 
jail inmates during the season. 

"We are supposed to eat at the jail during hours," said an assistant cook, 
in summing up the situation. "I can't do it. I would ruin my stomach. I make 
myself a cup of tea at noon here and the other meals I eat at home." 

86 



The Store 

Many persons in the jail spend from $3.00 to $6.00 a week on the store. 
This sells other things than food, such as cigarettes, matches, writing paper, 
stamps, newspapers, soap, etc. Among its foods are coffee, bottled milk, sweet 
rolls, pie, syrup, doughnuts, various kinds of sandwiches, and canned goods; 
the coffee contains both sugar and milk and the canned goods include sardines, 
baked beans, spaghetti, etc. Three cells on the ground floor of the old jail have 
heretofore been set apart for the accomodation of the store, in one of which 
there was a gas range for light cooking. The use of these cells diminished the 
space available for prisoners; the jailer was therefore putting up a brick par- 
tition in the old jail, while this study was in progress, making another room for 
the store. 

The store is a private concession, operated for the profit of its proprietor. 
How it sends food around the jail to the men in the cells at meal time has al- 
ready been described. The inmates may also give their orders to its runners for 
sandwiches and certain easily cooked dishes, which are delivered to them. What 
arrangement, if any, the proprietor makes in order that he may retain this 
privilege is not known; apparently this is a mystery to those directly in charge 
of the jail. The proprietor pays no rent as such, presumably, for the space he 
occupies; his helpers are, with the exception of one, prisoners who receive no 
pay; and his other expenses are negligible. Whether he or the county pays for 
the gas consumed by him in cooking is also not known. Many of the articles 
sold by him are bought at wholesale prices. He has practically a monopoly 
of the business afforded by from 800 to 1000 people, many of whom receive a 
good deal of spending money from friends and relatives on the outside. No 
accurate statement of his profits can, of course, be made, but it is commonly 
believed about the jail that he does an excellent business. 

Some of the prices charged to the prisoners are, according to an inquiry 
conducted by Mr. Westbrook, exorbitant. This inquiry showed a comparison 
between the prices charged by the store for some of the articles sold by it with 
the retail prices charged on the outside: 

Prices charged at Retail prices 

jail store outside 

Coffee (per cup) $ .05 $ .05 

Redhot sandwich .05 .05 and . 10 

Small can spaghetti (No. 1 size) .25 .14 

Small can sardines .25 .11 

Small can beans .25 .10 (Campbell's) 

. 14 (Heinz's) 

Small can syrup .25 .08 and . 09 

Pies 40 .25 

Sugar buns (small) 05 .02 ( .20 doz.) 

Doughnuts 10 for 3 .06 for 3 

Ham sandwiches (roll) .05 .05 and .10 

Pork chop sandwich .20 .15 

Cigars 06 and . 12 .05 and . 10 

Cigarettes (std. pkg.) .20 .14 and .15 

Pencil 05 



Prices charged at Retail prices 
Jail store outside 

Matches (small box) 02 .01 

Socks. .25 .15 

Letter outfit (2c stamp, two 

sheets of paper and envelope) . 05 

Special Delivery letter (same as 

above plus 10c stamp) .15 

A quart bottle of milk, not included in this list, was sold by the store to 
prisoners for 20 cents, although it was delivered at one customer's door on the 
outside at that time for 15 cents. 

The amounts of money spent by prisoners on the store vary, of course, 
with the amounts they have, or receive. Some prisoners have no money to 
spend and are entirely dependent upon the meals served by the jail. Most of 
the prisoners receive some money, the sums ranging from, perhaps, one to ten 
dollars a week. Of forty persons questioned in regard to the amounts they 
spent on the store, the majority estimated these amounts at between $3.00 and 
$6.00 a week. Those with the larger sums to spend eat little or no jail food, 
subsisting almost entirely upon what they can buy at the store and upon food 
sent in from the outside. 



Food Sent in From the Outside 

The rules governing food sent in from the outside are interesting. All 
parcels received for prisoners are searched, the object being to keep out contra- 
band articles. At the time this investigation was made the following were the 
articles "allowed" and "not allowed" to be sent in to prisoners: 



Allowed 

Apples 

Bananas 

Pears 

Oranges 

Grape Fruit 

Clothes 

Combs (plain, i.e., no metal) 

Sandwiches 

Cakes (plain, i.e., no icing) 

Cakes (in sealed packages) 

Cookies (in sealed packages) 

Spaghetti (cooked) 

Macaroni (cooked) 

Meat (cooked) 

Doughnuts 

Tablet sugar 

Tooth brushes 

Tomatoes 



Not Allowed 

Cigars 

Cigarettes 

Pies 

Tobacco 

Canned Goods 

Cheese 

Butter 

Candy 

Plums 

Peaches 

Grapes 

Milk 

Syrup 

Tooth paste 

Mirrors 

Hair brushes 

Cakes (layer) 

I.W.W. books 

Detective stories 

Melons 



Obviously the distinctions in this list do not well serve the purpose of 
making smuggling difficult. A layer cake does not lend itself to many improper 
uses that a plain cake cannot be made to serve almost as well, while dope can be 
concealed in a sandwich or in cooked spaghetti as easily as in most of the articles 
banned. Why apples, pears and oranges should be given preference over melons 
and peaches it is hard to discover. 

The rules seem carelessly framed at best. As a result of them, however, 
several nutritious and sweet foods are barred. It has been suggested that one 
object in making the rules in the past has been to play into the hands of the 
private store, enabling it to sell to the prisoners larger quantities of candy, 
sweet foods and other things than it could do if the ban were removed. It is 
significant that when the present jailer, Capt. Westbrook, learned some of the 
prices charged by the store, he immediately ordered that for the time being all 
sweets be allowed to go through the bundle cages to prisoners. 

Prisoners awaiting trial in the county jail should undoubtedly be allowed 
to buy food. They should be fed in such a manner, however, that the purchase 
of necessaries is not essential to their health or to their being well fed. As 
already pointed out, the county should feed them adequately and wholesomely; 
it might then engage, itself, in selling them extra delicacies at cost. Certainly a 
privately conducted store that charges such prices as are charged for many 
articles in the Cook County jail is improper. 

Recommendations 

1. It is recommended that a dietary schedule be carefully and scientifi- 
cally worked out for Cook County jail. This will be of value for the new jail, 
when built, as well as for the present one, but its compilation should be made 
immediately. The schedule should be devised by a competent, trained dieti- 
tian, perhaps with the cooperation of the Chicago Dietetic Association; it must 
necessarily take into consideration the quantity, quality, variety and attractive 
preparation of food. Prisoners should no longer either be punished through 
their stomachs or compelled to secure their food elsewhere. 

2. A close watch should be kept on the amount of uneaten and wasted 
food and the reason for this discovered and removed. 

3. The method of purchasing food for the jail should be scrutinized. Food 
is now purchased through a central board. Food of less than standard quality 
should not be received. 

4. The private store, if allowed to continue, should be more closely 
supervised and controlled in the matter of prices charged to prisoners and 
articles sold. 

5. The list of things that may be sent to prisoners by friends and relatives 
on the outside should be revised, the objects of the revision to be more accu- 
rately to safeguard administration and to serve the legitimate needs of prisoners. 

6. Again it is earnestly recommended that some method be devised foi 
permitting male prisoners to eat outside their cells. 

III. BARBER SHOP CONCESSION 

An outside barber has a concession in the jail. He has three chairs and 
men who want their hair cut or to be shaved go to him. He and his assistants 

80 



are busy nearly all of every morning ; the charge for a shave is fifteen cents, for a 
hair cut thirty-five. Prisoners who have no money are unable to secure the 
service of a barber, except when getting ready to go to Court. The expenses of 
the barber, like those of the private store keeper, are small. 

What the barber pays for his concession, either in money or political 
service, is not known. The county, which is depriving these prisoners of their 
liberty and therefore of their earning power, should attend to their tonsorial 
wants, giving them a shave at least once a week and a hair-cut when necessary. 
Here, again, it is a fair question whether the county should not employ its own 
barber. 

IV. GUARDS 

The guard is an important officer. Not only do the jailer and'the assistant 
jailer depend upon him for much of the smooth running of the institution, but 
he is the administrative agent most intimately in touch with the prisoners; 
often the guard is almost the only officer with whom a prisoner comes into con- 
tact during his confinement. His attitude toward prisoners, is, therefore, im- 
portant. If he has not sufficient firmness and ingenuity to meet the varying 
demands upon him, he may become an easy prey for designing offenders. On 
the other hand, if he is of the brow-beating kind and regards all persons accused 
of violating the law as inherently vicious and meriting the treatment of animals, 
he is likely to do more harm than good. Among the sixty-one guards at the 
Cook County jail there are men of various sorts, some who seem well 
equipped to perform their duties intelligently and some who are not. 

The method of appointing guards does not seem well calculated to secure 
good men. According to the frank explanation of a jail official, these are ap- 
pointed by the Sheriff after nominations have been made to him by ward com- 
mitteemen. The ward committeemen are political personages who furnish to 
the Sheriff lists of persons politically deserving and from these lists the guards 
are selected. This is, of course, patronage pure and simple. Cook County 
should adopt a more careful way of choosing jail guards. The test of selection 
should be merit and not political desert. 

The pay of the guards, as fixed in the budget for 1922, is $149 a month. 
This would have to be raised to secure a better class of men. 

The position of guard will become increasingly important as the jail ceases 
to be a mere place for keeping people in custody and attempts to exercise a 
beneficial influence over them. 

V. CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS 

Importance of Classification 

Present attempts at the grouping or classification of prisoners within the 
jail have one object; namely, the safekeeping of the prisoners. This is im- 
portant. It should not be lost sight of. The administrative purpose is not the 
only one to be sought, however. If Cook County wishes to prevent crime, and 
to do as much as it can for the men and women who are accused of breaking the 
law and cannot raise bail, it should begin by trying to build up in them more 

90 



desirable habits of life and more desirable conceptions of their relations to 
society. The moment they are taken into custody is not too early to begin this. 
Classification of some sort is the first step toward this end. This classification 
should be based upon a consideration of their individual needs, backgrounds, 
habits, temperments, education, family relationships, and whatever factors 
effect their conduct and amenability to jail life. The primary object of such 
diagnosis of individuals should be the strengthening of habits of socialized 
behavior. A classification arrived at in this way would serve as the basis of 
whatever educational and vocational work the jail provides; it would help, too, 
in determining the amount of freedom inside the jail — especially after the new 
jail is built — that individual prisoners might safely be allowed. For this pur- 
pose the services of persons trained in the individual study of offenders should 
be utilized. 

Present Method of Classification 

Incoming prisoners are now assigned to cells in the light merely of the 
charges against them, the size of their bonds and the seriousness of their crimi- 
nal records. This, besides the attempted segregation of drug addicts and 
venereal cases, is substantially the only classification sought; colored prisoners 
are grouped together as, to some extent, are younger offenders also. The assign- 
ment to cells is left to the Clerk who takes the records of the new prisoners. 
He follows roughly a set of rules that existed only in his own head up to two 
months ago; the rules were put in writing at the order of Captain Westbrook. 
Moreover, the overcrowding is such now that the rules cannot be fully carried 
out. It is needless to say that a classification of this sort, based largely upon 
the legalistic aspect of the charges against the man, is of little use in any edu- 
cational or reformative system of treatment. 

For example, men charged with lighter offenses or whose bonds are low are 
put for the most part in the old jail ; these men are supposed to be less dangerous 
than some others and the old jail is regarded as not so secure against escape as 
the new. In the first and second tiers of the new jail colored prisoners are 
grouped. Men whose bail has been fixed at sums ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 
are placed on the third floor of the new jail, and those whose bail runs over 
$20,000 are assigned to the fourth floor; these are the "hard guys," the more 
incorrigible and determined offenders. To the fifth floor are assigned prisoners 
of the United States government, men without bad records and some others. 
The sixth floor of the new jail is used for younger men between nineteen and 
twenty-two years of age — often the age has to be guessed at — and the seventh 
floor for boys under nineteen. In "celling" men implicated in the same offense, 
care is taken to separate them, if possible, so that they cannot communicate 
with each other in the jail; the object of this is to prevent collusion or a con- 
certed plan of any sort, but this object is largely defeated through the in- 
genuity of prisoners, who employ "runners" or "workers" to carry letters and 
messages. There are a few other refinements to the "celling" rules, but these 
are the main outlines. 

Objects of New Classification 

Detailed suggestions for the study and classification of individual pri- 

91 



soners will be made when the plans for the new jail are presented. At present 
it is desired only to point out two things : First, that some more intimate and 
accurate method of discovering the needs and aptitudes of individuals will 
have to be used, if the present jail is to introduce effectively any educational 
program, however slight; and second, that immediate steps should be taken 
to secure the cooperation of Cook County Psychopathic Hospital with a view to 
picking out those persons who suffer from ascertainable mental peculiarities or 
defects, and to their helpful treatment under the auspices of that hospital or 
their transference to some custodial institution calculated to benefit them. 

A single illustration will show the importance of this. In one of the so- 
called "observation" cells opposite the general hospital a man has now been 
confined for several months. There he lies for twenty-four hours a day. His 
cell contains nothing but a torn mattress, made of straw and bulging with 
lumps ; to this has been added a blanket. The man himself is clad only in a pair 
of jail trousers, also torn. He is nude from the waist up and his feet have neither 
shoes nor stockings. Whenever clothing has been given to him, he has torn it 
or refused to wear it. His hair is long and his beard unkempt. The cell is soldark 
that, standing at the door, you cannot make out the objects inside. The man 
has drawn his mattress into the corner least reached by light and there he lies 
"crumpled up like a ball," without moving. When a cup of water is pushed 
into his cell, he reaches for it with a long bare arm without getting up, the 
arm disappears, the cup is presently replaced and the man again subsides. 
Oranges, sent in to him by some unknown person on the outside, are eaten 
peels and all. 

Smith, for that is the man's name, makes only one response to persons 
entering his cell. He leaps to his feet at the first sound of the guard's key in the 
lock of his cell, cowers in a corner and says: "Are you going to hit me? Are 
you going to hit me?" His arms are thrown out in front of him, defensively. 
The body sways slightly from side to side. His hairy chest is entirely exposed. 
His feet are bare and parts of his legs are visible through the rents in his trousers. 
The look of fear with which he tries to take in the purpose of his visitors wavers 
at first and then finds the star on the guard's breast, where it remains fixed, 
as if this were the symbol of what he most dreads. 

The story is that Smith, when captured, was beaten brutally by police- 
men in their zeal to wring a confession from him; whether this is true or not, 
has not been established. The fact remains that for two or three months he 
has been confined in this dark, damp cell, under conditions that resemble 
mediaeval neglect; the jail records do not disclose the day of his transference 
to the cell. He entered the institution September 22nd, 1921, more than seven 
months ago. During that time no adequate attempt has been made either to 
care for his physical wants or to discover whether his experiences have resulted 
in mental unbalance. Alienists have visited him. Mr. Westbrook says that 
those sent by the defense have uniformly pronounced him insane, those sent by 
the state have declared that he was shamming. Smith is twenty years old. 
Whatever may have been his condition when he was arrested, Cook County is 
responsible for two things: First, for failure to try him or otherwise dispose 
of his case in seven months, and second, for keeping him under conditions that 
quite conceivably may in themselyes be slowly robbing him of normal control 
over his faculties. 

92 



Recommendations 

1. It is recommended that a jail ward be established at the Cook County 
Psychopathic Hospital, with the co-operation and approval of that hospital, 
for the observation and care of prisoners suspected of having mental dis- 
turbance. 

2. A more suitable method of classifying individual prisoners, as an aid 
to an enlarged educational program, should be devised. 

NOTE : It should be noted in connection with this and other reports relating to physical conditions in the present 
jail, that the survey was begun shortly after the present warden, Capt. Wesley "Westbrook, took cnarge. Not only was 
he net responsible for the bad conditions described , but he took steps immediately, as they were called to his attention , 
to correct them as far as possible. There has been, particularly, marked improvement in the prices charged by the 
store and in the cleaning of blankets. 



Report on Medical and Health Conditions in 
The Cook County Jail 

BY 

Dr. R. B. Preble and Dr. Joseph L. Miller 

This report, made at the instance of the Chicago Community Trust, as an 
incident of the Survey of the Cook County Jail now in progress, is based on a 
study of the medical and health conditions of the jail made by the undersigned in 
April and May, 1922. 

It has been brought to our attention that the population of the County Jail 
is almost exclusively composed of persons accused of a wide range of criminal 
offenses who are being held to await judicial action on the charges against 
them; that a large number of them will ultimately be released as "not guilty," 
and that, whether guilty or not, they are in a large proportion of cases kept in 
confinement for many weeks or even months until their cases are disposed of. 

It is proper to say in this connection that medical science has no concern 
with the question of the guilt or innocence of the people so confined. It pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that every person held in detention by the public 
authorities is entitled to healthful living conditions, to periodic examination 
into his mental and physical state of health, and to adequate medical care. 
After a careful examination of the conditions prevailing in the Cook County 
Jail, we have come to the conclusion that the County authorities have con- 
spicuously failed to perform their duty in the above respects. 

1. GENERAL CONDITIONS AFFECTING HEALTH 

Over-Crowding 
It is no part of our duty to fix the responsibility for the serious conditions 
of overcrowding which have come to prevail in the jail, but the bearing of these 
conditions on the general health of the inmates cannot be questioned. The foul 
air resulting from the crowding of three and four men within the confined space 
of a single, narrow cell, and of hundreds of men into the congested bull-pens; 
the all but complete lack of physical exercise or of recreation for weeks and 
months at a stretch; the absence of occupation for mind and body, and the 
inevitable contagion resulting from such close contact cannot but result in an 
almost universal deterioration of vitality and an impairment of physical 
health even when acute disease fails to develop. It is equally evident that 
serious impairment of the nervous system and of the mental health of the 

9."{ 



inmates must result from living under these abnormal conditions of irritability, 
especially when combined, as they are, with anxiety and uncertainty as to their 
ultimate fate or even as to the probable length of their confinement. Wholly 
apart from the fact that these conditions of congestion make a proper sanitation 
out of the question, there can be no doubt that they produce a mental state on 
the part of the inmates that is highly deleterious and that may have permanent 
effects on their health. 

Infectious Conditions 

Each prisoner upon being received at the jail undergoes what is designed 
as a physical examination. This is given by the assistant jail physician, who 
comes to the institution for an hour or so every evening for this purpose. Before 
his arrival the prisoners received since his last visit have been searched and given 
a bath. After bathing, however, the prisoner puts on the same clothing, includ- 
ing underclothing, that he had on when entering the jail. There is no adequate 
provision for fumigating or sterilizing the clothing to destroy vermin or disease- 
producing germs, and this is, in fact, rarely done. After the examination the 
prisoner is assigned to a temporary cell in the receiving wing of the jail. Here 
he remains over night until assigned to permanent quarters. The sheet used on 
the cot is changed only once a week, so it is possible that he may sleep on a 
sheet which has been used by five other prisoners. It is unnecessary to com- 
ment on the dangers attendant upon such a procedure, both as regards infec- 
tion and the dissemination of germs. 

Ventilation 

The present building was intended to accomodate some 560 male pri- 
soners. The average number actually confined is approximately 900. The cells 
contain 380 cubic feet of air space, and these were intended for two prisoners 
at the most. Now, however, three or four prisoners are placed in almost every 
cell, allowing thus an individual air space of a little more or less than 100 cubic 
feet. Inasmuch as the minimum requirement is 500 cubic feet per person 
where there is through-and-through ventilation, the state of the air in one of 
these cells where there is no through-and-through ventilation can readily be 
imagined. The air simply enters at the front of the cell. At the back is the 
steel door which does not contain a ventilator. This door opens onto the 
bull-pen. Each prisoner is kept in his cell twenty out of the twenty-four hours, 
as he is allowed two hours twice a day for exercise. 

The cell is provided with a double-decked, or. in some cases, with a three- 
decked bunk. Where more than two or three prisoners are confined in a cell 
they sleep on a mattress placed on the floor in the cramped space at the side of, 
or under, the cot. The width of one cell measured was only four feet, eight 
inches. 

This condition is a most deplorable one and can only be entirely corrected 
with the construction of a new jail in which due consideration is given to sanita- 
tion, and especially to the provision of adequate air space for each prisoner. 
This condition, however, in the present institution could be very much im- 
proved by putting a ventilator in the steel door at the rear of the cell. This 
would at least permit through-and-through ventilation. 

The bull-pens in which the the inmates are exercised are. with the excep- 

04 



tion of one, fairly well ventilated. This bull pen has a low ceiling, is dark and 
most unsatisfactory. When a new jail is constructed, it is very desirable that 
some plan be devised by which the prisoners may get exercise in the open air, 
or at least in a room with sunlight and good ventilation. 

Vermin 

The relation of vermin to disease is only dimly apprehended by the com- 
munity at large. To medical science, vermin are not only a nuisance or a 
symptom of a low standard of living on the part of those who tolerate them, but 
a source of infection and of lowered vitality. The verminous home or insti- 
tution is a disease-breeding place. The prevalence of vermin in the cells and 
bull-pens of the County Jail and on the persons, in the clothing and beds of the 
inmates is, therefore, a condition which has to do with the health of the insti- 
tution. 

With the present arrangement of replacing the prisoner's clothing after 
bis initial bath, a practice which is described elsewhere in this report, it is 
impossible to prevent lice, bedbugs and fleas from gaining access to the cells. 
The arrangement at the present time is that, if the prisoners complain of their 
cells being infected with vermin, the vermin are destroyed by the use of gaso- 
line torches. No systematic going over of the cells for this purpose is carried out, 
but only on complaint of the inmates. This should be remedied. All cells should 
be gone over for the destruction of vermin at stated intervals. By the use of a 
torch only those vermin are destroyed in the walls or on the floor. No attempt 
is made to destroy those in the bed. The blankets are only washed at infre- 
quent intervals, and as a rule not oftener than several months and probably a 
very much longer period of time. 

As stated elsewhere, clean sheets are distributed only once a week. All of 
these practices favor the development of vermin in the cells. 

At the present time a concession is granted for a barber shop. They charge 
fifteen cents for a shave and thirty-five cents for a hair-cut. Those prisoners 
without money are denied the opportunity to get a hair-cut or shave, excepting 
when summoned to appear in court for trial, and this again may be a very 
important factor in promoting the development and consequent dissemination 
of vermin. 

2. FOOD CONDITIONS 

The relation of health to nutrition and the dependence of the latter on the 
regular supply of a sufficient, appetizing and well-balanced diet are too well 
known to require special emphasis in this report. It may be said that conditions 
in the County Jail in this respect are far from satisfactory. 

Food conditions in the jail have been set forth so fully and accurately in 
the report of Mr. Winthrop D. Lane, which appears in connection herewith, 
that it is unnecessary to recapitulate them here. 

Apart from the fact that the diet is so monotonous and unappetizing in 
character that most of the inmates refuse to eat it and that it is so heavy and 
unbalanced that it produces an abnormal amount of digestive trouble on the 
part of those who are forced to depend on it, the features that call especially for 
medical notice are the absence of fresh vegetables and the almost complete lack 
of sugar, milk and butter or butter-substitutes. These are, perhaps, in addition 

95 



to bread, the most essential elements of a balanced and nutritious diet and it is 
hardly too much to say that a state of health cannot be maintained without 
them. It is true that such of the prisoners as have money are able to procure 
these necessities from the jail store and that those who have families or friends 
able and willing to help them can procure them from the outside, but there are 
many hundreds of the thousands that pass through the jail in the course of a 
year who are compelled to depend wholly on the jail diet. 

We cannot blink the fact that the possession of money and friends may 
be an advantage in a jail as well as in the world outside, but we believe that we 
are warranted in insisting that where the State has placed men in confinement 
and prevented them from earning their livelihood, it is under the duty of sup- 
plying them with a diet which will be adequate to the maintenance of their 
health and strength. 

It is our understanding that the question of the jail diet is being studied 
by a Committee of the Chicago Dietetic Association, which will make special 
recommendations on the subject. 

3. MEDICAL SERVICE 

Physician and Staff 

The medical service of the jail is directed by a Jail Physician and an assist- 
ant physician, who are assisted by two inmates, serving sentences. The chief 
physician, as required by law, calls at the jail every morning and the assistant 
in the evening. Each is expected to spend as much time as may be necessary, 
but both are busy practitioners and have little time to spare for the most un- 
congenial and least profitable part of their professional work. They have, 
apparently, not regarded it a part of their duty to give attention to the ventila- 
tion or the sanitary conditions of the place. In fact Mr. Lane reports that the 
chief physician gave him the comforting assurance that "the jail is a health 
resort." 

With 900 inmates, frequently changing, the full-time service of one or more 
competent medical men is required — not merely for the purpose of devoting 
more time to the examination of prisoners on entrance, but also to make rounds 
through the jail, possibly to detect in this manner incipient disease, to make 
physical examinations as often as required of all those, at least, who are sus- 
pected of having some progressive disease, and to look after the sanitary con- 
dition of the hospital as a whole. A man holding such a position should, there- 
fore, not merely be familiar with medical diagnosis, but should also have some 
training in sanitation. 

In addition to this physician who would be on service all of the time 
there should be at regular intervals medical inspection of the jail by a com- 
mittee of medical men appointed by some such organization as the Chicago 
Institute of Medicine. They would thus be able to check up and detect any 
neglect of sanitation or medical care. 

Mental and Physical Examination 

There is no mental examination of the inmates on their arrival nor sub- 
sequently during their confinement. In view of the now well-known fact that a 

o:; 



large proportion of delinquents are feeble-mined and that many of them suffer 
from insanity or other psychopathic conditions, the neglect of this elementary 
precaution cannot be justified. 

The physical examination of newly received prisoners is conducted in a very 
perfunctory manner. On one occasion recently forty-two men were examined 
in thirteen minutes, part of this time being consumed by the examiner in filling 
out the prisoners' record cards. On the bases of this brief examination, how- 
ever, the examiner filled out each man's card for scabies, syphilis, gonorrhea, 
tuberculosis, condition of the heart, condition of the lungs and general physical 
condition. It is apparent that an examination of this character is practically 
valueless, as only very evident lesions could be detected. No provision is made 
for examination of urine or sputum, and no Wasserman tests are made on any 
of the prisoners in the institution, although some of these prisoners are confined 
there for many months. In such a superficial examination only advanced 
tuberculosis could be detected. No doubt many cases of active pulmonary 
tuberculosis are placed in cells with healthy prisoners and the danger of con- 
tagion is very great. Not only may an infected inmate thus unnecessarily 
expose other prisoners, but in the poorly ventilated and damp cells and with 
the inadequate food provided, the disease within a few weeks may reach an 
incurable stage. In such an examination early scarlet fever or measles might 
also be overlooked, and such a highly contagious disease as itch. Even if the 
patient were found to have tuberculosis, no provisions are available for proper 
isolation or confinement in a cell or room properly lighted and ventilated. 
There is no provision made for the proper disinfection of the cells, so the possi- 
bility of an infection like tuberculosis being carried in this manner is certainly 
very great. 

Care of Patients — Hospital 

Prisoners with minor complaints are given pills or powders by a prisoner 
assigned to the dispensary. In the selection of a prisoner for this position, 
trustworthiness, rather than any special knowledge of pharmacy, is the neces- 
sary qualification. Inasmuch as such prisoners serve short sentences, the per- 
sonnel will be frequently changed. A permanent position should be established 
and a person selected to fill it who at least has some knowledge of pharmacy. 

Serious cases of illness are treated by the prison physician in the hospital. 
The jail at present has two hospital wards. These are known as Hospital A 
and Hospital B. Hospital A is located on the top floor. It is a large, suitably 
light, airy room with toilet facilities, which could accomodate, without un- 
necessary crowding, twelve patients. On the day of our visit there was just one 
patient in this room, a prisoner ill with pneumonia. 

Hospital B is on the ground floor. It is a room approximately forty by 
twelve feet, and was constructed by walling off a part of a wide corridor,or 
what was no doubt intended for a bull-pen. The walls are simply heavy wire 
netting with canvas on the inside at one end. The ceiling is low. There is no 
outside light. The room is damp, most uncomfortable and unsanitary. It has 
no proper toilet facilities. A more gloomy and unsuitable location for a hospital 
could not have been selected. This ward contains eleven beds, four of which 
were occupied and one of these by a prisoner who had been confined since last 
October awaiting trial. He had lost forty pounds in weight. From his ap- 




3fS 



.2 5 



pearance and from information gathered from the attendant it would appear 
he was suffering from tuberculosis. No examination of the sputum had been 
made, nor were we able to find in the record book any statement in regard to the 
nature of his ailment. 

Captain Westbrook, the Jail Warden, realized fully the unsanitary con- 
dition of Hospital B and was strongly in favor of abandoning it and placing 
all prisoners requiring hospital care in Hospital A. He stated that he had been 
unable to do this because it would be necessary to employ three guards to be 
on duty at Hospital A, which is at present unguarded, and he had not been 
able to obtain an appropriation for paying these guards. 

There is at present no provision for the isolation of contagious cases. While 
the institution has been unusually free from these diseases, the conditions are 
such with prisoners mingling during the recreation hours in crowded bull-pens 
and confined together during the rest of the day in cells, that sooner or later 
an epidemic will develop, and provision should be made for meeting such an 
emergency. Captain Westbrook had already considered this matter and 
suggested that the "death chamber" might be used for this purpose inas- 
much as it is unoccupied except on rare occasions and then only for twenty-four 
hours. This room is large, well lighted and could accomodate at least four 
patients. The only change needed would be the installation of a bathroom, 
and this could be placed in the store opening off from this chamber. Inas- 
much as there have been very few contagious cases in the Hospital in recent 
years it is quite likely that this chamber could still fulfill the function for which 
it was intended. In the plans for a new jail, however, adequate facilities should 
be provided for the proper isolation o e contagious cases. Even with the use of 
the "death chamber," the facilities for isolating patient is entirely inadequate 
and the health of every inmate in this institution is menaced by failure to 
provide suitable isolation quarters. A book is provided to keep a record of 
patients in the hospitals, but this is poorly kept and little information can be 
gained from studying it. 

Women's Hospital 

The hospital connected with the women's department of the jail is all that 
could be desired, except for convenient toilet facilities. It is a clean, well- 
lighted room with three comfortable beds. It is the one bright spot in the 
hospital situation at the institution. The lack of a toilet and bath is, however, 
a serious drawback and one that should be remedied without delay. 

Mental Cases 

There is no provision at the present time for taking care of suspected 
mental cases. At the time the institution was visited there was a prisoner who 
had been in jail since last October, and it was uncertain whether he was a 
malingerer or whether he was actually insane. He was kept in a damp cell on 
the first floor opposite Hospital B. He was without clothing except for a pair 
of trousers, as this was- all he would keep on. There was no cot in the room. 
The whole environment was most undesirable. It brings up another question 
which should receive attention — namely, the long period of time in which 
prisoners are kept in jail before coming to trial. The chances are with a man 

nn 



having tuberculosis, or mental trouble, that such long detention might convert 
a curable into an incurable ease. 

Drug Addicts 

There is no doubt that drug addiction is very common among the persons 
committed to the County Jail. The lack of an adequate examination of all 
inmates on admission or subsequently thereto leaves persons of this sort dis- 
tributed about the jail, undetected, only to become a source of infection and 
serious misconduct. The well-known relation of this habit to criminality and 
its tendency to induce a vicious and reckless character make it specially desir- 
able to identify and, so far as possible, to isolate and treat its victims. Under 
existing conditions in the jail it will not be easy to deal adequately with this 
class of patients. But they should at least be weeded out from the general jail 
population and disposed of in such a way as to subject them to constant super- 
vision and a humane form of treatment. It is possible that arrangements 
might be made to treat the more serious cases in the Washingtonian Home or 
other institution for the treatment of drug addiction. 

Re-Examination 

At the present time prisoners who are kept in the Hospital for several 
months are never examined by the physician unless they make some complaint. 
Provision should be made for the re-examination of prisoners at no longer than 
monthly intervals in order to detect incipient disease. While this examination 
should include a general looking-over of the patient, special attention should 
be paid to the chest on account of the danger of tuberculosis developing in this 
environment. 

In conclusion we respectfully submit the following recommendations: 

Recommendations 

1. The rule requiring examination of prisoners upon entrance should be 
more rigidly observed. To make such an examination and record the findings 
would require a minimum of ten minutes per person. 

2. The prisoner should be provided with clean underclothing following 
the initial bath. 

3. Hospital B should be immediately abandoned. 

4. A six-foot movable partition should be placed through Hospital A 
and an additional toilet and bathroom provided. One portion of Hospital A 
can be used for the isolation of tuberculosis patients. The addition of toilet 
facilities adjacent to the "death chamber" would be desirable so that this 
room might be used as an isolation ward also. 

5. Suitable quarters for mental cases should be provided. If this cannot 
be done at the jail, arrangements should be made so this group of patients 
might be taken to the County Psychopathic Hospital where they can be ade- 
quately studied and an early conclusion reached in regard to their condition. 

6. Better medical attention and, if necessary, isolation for venereal cases 
should be provided. 

7. More complete records should be kept of patients in the Hospital. 

8. Laboratory facilities for some of the ordinary routine examinations 
should be provided. 

100 




^3 



5 3: 






9. A full-time physician, with one or more assistants, should be appointed 
to devote their entire time to looking after the inmates of the jail, thus enabling 
the inmates to receive proper medical attention and permit of monthly ex- 
amination of all prisoners. 

10. A trained pharmacist should be provided to dispense simple remedies, 
to replace the trusty who now performs this function. 

11. The Chicago Institute of Medicine should be authorized to appoint a 
committee of three physicians who will make quarterly inspection of the jail 
and make a written report to the proper authorities. 

12. The inmates should be allowed more than the four hours for exercise 
in the bull-pens, in order to lessen the dangers of the present crowding and in- 
adequate air space in the cells. 

13. A ventilator should be placed in the rear of each cell. 

14. There should be systematic extermination of the vermin in the cells. 

15. Clean sheets should be provided for each new prisoner when placed in 
a cell. 

16. Blankets should be cleansed and disinfected at intervals not to exceed 
one month. 

17. A proper sterilizing plant should be provided for the proper disinfection 
of clothing. 

18. A committee of dietitians should be appointed to make periodic in- 
spection of food conditions and make recommendations in regard to the pri- 
soners' diet. 

19. The plans for the new jail should make provision for the following hos- 
pital facilities and equipment : 

(a) Laboratory facilities in order that some of the simpler exami- 
nations, essential in making a diagnosis, can be carried on. 

(b) Well lighted and well ventilated hospital space. This should 
be arranged in the form of separate wards of moderate size, rather 
than one large ward, in order to provide suitable isolation. In addi- 
tion to this there should be a number of two or three-bed rooms which 
could also be used for isolation of special contagious cases. The 
number and size of these wards, and the number of the small rooms re- 
quired would depend upon the size of the jail to be constructed. 

(c) Suitable isolation quarters for the mental, or suspect mental 
cases, unless it is decided that these can be taken care of at the County 
Psychopathic Hospital, which would be by far the better arrange- 
ment from the standpoint of medical attention. 

(d) All cells arranged so there would be through-and-through 
ventilation, allowing a capacity of 500 cubic feet of air space for each 
inmate. 

(e) If possible, an outdoor yard arranged where the prisoners 
could get exercise. If this is not feasible, then well lighted and well 
ventilated bull-pens should be provided. 

(f) Suitable space and adequate facilities for making the pre- 
liminary medical examination of the prisoners. 

(g) A properly equipped dispensary. 

102 



Report on Food Conditions in 
The Cook County Jail 

By the 

Special Committee on Jail Diet of the 
Chicago Dietetic Association 

Anything like an adequate survey of the food situation in the County Jail 
could only be made after a study at first hand — living at the jail and following 
through the whole course for successive days. This has not been possible. With 
the co-operation of Captain Westbrook, the Warden, and his assistant, the 
Committee of Dietitians visited the kitchen several times, saw the raw food 
materials, saw the prepared food, saw the serving, and noted in a general way 
the amount of waste. The report is in no way accurate but a general picture of 
conditions as noted by the committee accustomed to supervising the cooking 
and serving for large groups. 

It is evidently the intention of the County to furnish the persons held in the 
County Jail an inexpensive diet that is adequate to maintain them in proper 
physical condition. Mr. Lane's report gives in detail the kinds and character 
of the food served. The present food served, though sufficient in quantity and 
for the most part wholesome in quality, is not a balanced diet. It lacks fat — 
no fat except that contained in the meat. It lacks sugar — no sugar in the 
general diet. The amount of fat and sugar in the bread is negligible. It lacks 
food that contains vitimies, a fact to be considered since nearly twenty per cent 
of the inmates are boys — 2000 out of a total of 8600 in 1921. Their previous 
food habits should not be the standard, as those very habits may have been a 
contributory factor in their delinquency. The foods are not well distributed, 
viz: Rice, potatoes and bread served at one meal with no other vegetable; or 
potatoes, hominy and bread at another. 

With a budget of $36,000.00 and a census of approximately 850, the menu 
must of necessity be limited. No doubt habit and precedent play an important 
part both in the buying and ordering, as well as the preparation of the food. It 
takes imagination and much planning to vary a 12-cent or less per capita menu 
to any considerable degree. A few suggestions are found elsewhere in the paper 
in the form of a week's menu worked out on the present day capita cost. The 
prices taken are from invoices of materials received in May of this year, and 
prices given by Mr. Henry A. Zender, the County Superintendent of Public 
Service, and by firms furnishing foodstuffs to the jail. 

A study of the requisitions for the month of April might be of interest. 

103 






Cook County Jail Requisition Classified 

for 

Twenty-Eight Days of April,1922 

Meat — 

Salt Pork 6 pounds 

Chuck 6380 pounds 

Corned Beef 1900 pounds 

Fish 

Lard 60 pounds 

Milk 299 gallons 

Flour 147 sacks 

Macaroni 2 barrels 

Rice 300 pounds 

Peas -. 1900 pounds 

Beans 900 pounds 

Potatoes 135 sacks 

Cabbage 40 sacks 

Carrots 18 sacks 

Turnips 33 sacks 

Onions 2 sacks 

Tomatoes 9 cans 

For Women — 

Sugar 174 pounds 

Syrup 42 cans 

Jelly 120 cans 

Coffee 1300 pounds 

Tea 10 pounds 

Salt • 3 barrels 

Pepper 12 pounds 

It was not determined by the Committee whether or not all supplies 
requisitioned were furnished, but from the distribution throughout the month 
the list is probably nearly correct. Sausage and fish were not requisitioned 
though these items, we understand, always appear on the weekly menu. The 
amount of chuck and corned beef, if served 5 times per week, would allow 400 
pounds per day. Two hundred and ninety-nine gallons of milk is an average of 
a little more than 10 gallons per day. Since most of this was served the women, 
the general diet contained very little. 

The Comptroller's report/for 1921, shows that of the $34,537.53 spent for 
food, the sum of $15,403.22 was spent for meat. A substitution of some butter, or 
butter substitute, and milk in place of some of the meat would undoubtedly 
have resulted in less waste of bread and cereal and made a better balance. 
One hundred forty-seven sacks or 105 barrels of flour is an average of 31-9 ban-els 
per day, enough to make 850 to 900 pounds of bread, or one pound per person 
per day; % pound is sufficient with other starchy foods in diet. Split pea soup is 
served three times per week. Note — 1900 pounds of split peas' 

The monotony of having the same soup repeated every second day is a 

101 



guarantee that much goes down the sewer. A vegetable soup using the stock 
from the bones, with a little rice or barley would form a more appetizing dish 
and result in less waste. 

Thirteen hundred pounds of coffee, serving every morning and every other 
evening 80 and 90 gallons, allows 30 pounds per meal, a sufficient amount. If 
the coffee were ground finer and a muslin bag used instead of the burlap sack 
now in use, the results would be more palatable. Scalding the milk would im- 
prove the flavor and lessen the possibility of serving cold coffee, which seems to 
be a general complaint. 

It is deplorable that the serving of the food should be so primitive. It is 
to be hoped that in the new jail some more civilized and civilizing method of 
serving will be installed. 



JAIL DIET — -Based upon 1 udget of $35,000 per year or approximately $95.00 per day for 850 
900 people, approximately 1 1 cents a day per capita— 

PRESENT DIET 



to 



BREAKFAST 



Typical meals for a day: 
DINNER 



Clear Coffee, Duffer (bread) Beef Stew, Potatoes, Vegetables 

Carrots, Turnips or Cabbage. 
Total Food allowance per day 
Bread, 1 lb. — 254 Carbohydrates 



Meat, y 2 lb. 

Potato M lb.- — 32 Carbonydrates : 

Carrot or Cabbage or Turnip J4 lb. — 7 . 2 Carbohydrates 

Dry Peas 1 . . oz. — 24.8 Carbonydrates 

Coffee 

317. Ogm. Carbohydrates 



SUPPER 

Coffee, Duffer, or 
Duffer. 
Protein 

43.2 

48 

3.2 

1.2 

9.6 



Soup and 

Fat 

9.6 

31.2 



105.2 



.4 

41.2 
Total calories 2048 

Theoretically, the carbohydrate and proteid are high for people not working. Fat low. In practice 
this amount of food is not eaten and is therefore insufficient. 

A reasonable proportion of carbohydrate, proteid and fat for average person living in confinement, 
is approximately: 



Carbohydrates 
250 grams 
SUGGESTED MEALS- 
BREAKFAST . . 

Oatmeal 

Milk... 

Sugar 

Coffee— 90 gal 

Milk (hot) 

Sugar 

Bread 

Margarine. . 



DINNER— 
Chuck beef . 
Potatoes. . . 
Carrots. . . . 
Bread 



Proteid 
75 grams 
-850 to 900 



Fat 
100 grams 



Calories 
2200 to 2600 



80 lbs. 
30 gal. 
20 lbs. 
25 lbs. 
10 gal. 
25 lbs. 
225 lbs. 
25 lbs. 



2.50 per ewt. 
.18 per gal. 
.05 per lb. 
.16 per lb. 
.18 per gal. 
.05 per lb. 
.03 plus 
.20 



Portion Carbv. Prot. 



$ 2.00 6-8 oz. 
5.40 4 oz. 
1.00 2 tsp. 



30 

6 

24 



Fats Calories 
1.1 

4.8 



70 
80 



1 pt. 

2 tbs. 



1 . 00 2 tsp. 



00 
00 



14 lb. 

Hoz. 



2.4 1.4 
31.8 5.4 



1.7 



12.7 



$27:90 



Total 
Calories 



SUPPER— 
Prunes. . . . 

Bread 

Margarine 
Coffee 



300 lbs. 
450 lbs. 
300 lbs. 
250 lbs. 


$6.00 per cwt. 

2.00 per cwt. 

1.00 per cwt. 

.03 per lb. 

$9.00 per cwt. 
.03 per lb. 
.20 per lb. 
.16 per lb. 


$18.00 H\b. 
9.00 Hlb. 
3.00 Klb. 
7.00 Klb. 


94.2 

32 
7.2 
31.8 


17.6 

30 
3.2 
1.2 
5.4 

39.8 

1.2 
5.4 


20 
18 

18 
12 


3 

7 


629.9 

Total 
Calories 
605 . 2 


100 lbs. 
225 lbs. 

25 lbs. 

25 lbs. 


$37.00 

$ 9.00 8-10pr. 
7.00 Klb. 
5.00 M oz. 
4.70 1 pt. 


71.0 

33.4 
31.8 



km; 






Sugar 20 lbs. .05 per lb. 1 .00 2 tsp. 12 

Milk 10 gal. .18 gal. 1.80 2 tsp. 2.4 1.4 1.7 



$28.50 79.6 8.0 14.4 480 



Grand Total $92.90 

BREAKFAST— Typical 

Dinner: 

Hamberger 225 lbs. 

with 

Onions 25 lbs. 

Potatoes 300 lbs. 

Breid 225 lbs. 

Suprjer: 

Stewed fruit 

Bread 250 lbs. 

Coffee, with milk and sugar 

Margarine 25 lbs. 



BREAKFAST— Typical . 

Dinner: 

Salt Cod Fish 75 lbs. 

. Milk gravy, 

40 gal. milk 

5 lbs. oleo 

15 lbs. flour 

Potatoes 450 lbs. 

Bread 225 lbs. 

Supper: 

Vegetable soup, made from stock from bones, 

Cabbage 25 lbs. 

Carrots 25 lbs. 

Onions 10 lbs. 

Barley 20 lbs. 

Flour 10 lbs. 





244.8 65 


4 52.7 


1715 
$27.90 


at 


.10 


$22.50 




at 


.02 


.50 




at 


2.00 cwt. 


6.00 








7.00 


36.00 






9.00 




at 




7.00 
..50 








5.00 


28.50 






$92.40 








$27 . 90 


at 


.10 


7. 50 




at 


.18 


7.20 




at 


.20 


1.00 




at 


.03 


.45 




at 




9.00 








7.00 


$32.35 






.75 








.50 








.20 








.60 








.30 





Bread .* 225 lbs. 7 .00 

Stewed fruit 9.00 $18.35 



;*78.60 



SUGGESTED MEAL CHANGES: 

Breakfast: Cereals, oatmeal, oatmeal and bran, cornmeal, rice. 

Dinner: Fish with macaroni and tomatoes — no potatoes. Bread. Serve vegetable soup for 

supper. 

Hash with beets or raw onions when cheap, Bread. Stew with turnips or carrots and 

potatoes. Bread. 

Cornedbeef and cabbage with potatoes and bread. 

Baked beans with ham butts. 

Potato and sausage loaf; 2 parts raw potatoes, 1 part sausage and gravy. 
Supper: Stewed fruit, prunes, apricots, peaches, dried apple sauce. 

Vegetable soup. Potato soup with salt pork; bean or pea soup, with bacon ends or 

salt pork. Bread. 

All of the above are calculated on a per capita basis not exceeding the present cost. 
For a 15 cent per capita add to the above: 
A meat substitute for supper. 

i.e. Rice and tomatoes and cheese. 

Potatoes with bacon. 
Fresh fruit for breakfast, occasionally. 
More milk, and more fat. 
For a 20- cent per capita: 

Add milk, eggs, fat and sugar in the form of simple puddings. 

Respectfully submitted, 

CHICAGO DIETETIC ASSOCIATION, 
Emma B. Aylward. 
June 15, 1922. Committee Chairman, Dietetian Presbyterian School for Nurses. 

Miss Elizabeth Tuft — Dietetian Wesley Memorial Hospital. 
Miss Breta Luther — Dietetian Cook CouutyHospital. 

kMiss Rose Straka — Dietetian Presbyterian Hospital. 



107 









Detention of The Woman Offender 



By 



MRS. KENNETH F. RICH 

Director of the Bureau of Surveys and Exhibits, 
of the Chicago Community Trust. 

Formerly, Director Girls' Protective Bureau of Chicago. 






WHERE AND HOW SHALL COOK COUNTY DETAIN 
WOMEN ACCUSED OF CRIME? 

Outline 

I. PRESENT DETENTION QUARTERS 

1. Women in the County Jail 

Capacity and Construction 

Ventilation 

The Daily Life 

Recreation 

Meals 

Hospital 

Occupation and Employment 

Cleanliness 

2. In the District Police Stations 

Harrison Street Annex of the South Clark Street Station 

Hyde Park Station 

Stock Yards Station 

South Chicago Station 

West Chicago Avenue Station 

General Administration of Women's Quarters 

3. The Three Detention Homes Experiment 

II. SIZE OF DETENTION HOME NEEDED 

(As shown by the Numbers of W T omen Detained in 
Chicago and Cook County.) 

1 . Number of Women Arrested in Chicago . 

Daily 

Monthly 

Annually 

2. Additional Women Held 

3. Effect of Bail on Size of Detention Home Needed 

4. Relation of the Numbers of Women Convicted to 
Size of Detention Home 

5. Daily Woman Population in the County Jail 

Total number held 

Number serving Jail sentence 

Number awaiting trial on indictment 

no 



Number awaiting action of the Grand Jury 
Number awaiting action Municipal Court 
Length of time in Jail 

III. CHARACTER OF WOMAN POPULATION OF THE 
COUNTY JAIL AND CITY POLICE STATIONS 

1. Age 

In County Jail 

Among All Women Arrested 

2. Charge 

County Jail Women 
Among All Women Arrested 

3. Number Times Arrested 

4. Physical Condition and Habits 

5. Nationality 

6. Color 

7. Education 

8. Occupation 

IV. PLANS FOR A CENTRAL DETENTION HOME 

1. Facilities and Equipment Needed 

Segregation 

Morals Court 

Woman's Court 

Policewomen 

Finger Printing 

Probation Officers 

State and City Attorneys 

Psychopathic Laboratory 

Medical Clinic 

Educational Facilities 

Recreation 

Kitchen and Dining Rooms 

Laundry and Sterilizer 

Building Available 

2. Administrative Personnel 

Superintendent 
Assistant Superintendent 
Matrons 
Receiving Clerks 
Other Assistants 

V. REASONS FOR A SEPARATE DETENTION HOUSE 

FOR WOMEN 

VI. REASONS FOR COMBINING THE WOMAN'S DETEN- 

TION FACILITIES OF CITY AND COUNTY 



in 



I. PRESENT DETENTION QUARTERS 

Women in Cook County accused of crime spend the period awaiting trial, 
if they cannot secure bail, in the Woman's Quarters of the County Jail, or in 
the various police lock-ups scattered over the city. Gradually, since the 
periodic reports of the State Inspector of Institutions have come forth, the 
nature of those detention quarters has become familiar to Chicago's citizens. 
There has been a challenge in that official's condemnatory conclusion, "in 
Chicago we find the worst jails in the State," (a) a challenge which the prog- 
ressive elements in this community have been struggling to meet. 

No new efforts can be intelligently directed, until fresh inventories are 
made of the present size of the detention problem, the existent jail provisions, 
and their possibilities of expansion and improvement. The following state- 
ment by Mr. Winthrop D. Lane is a current description of the Women's Quar- 
ters in the County Jail and presents a picture of the woman prisoner's daily life: 

1. Women in the County Jail 

Capacity and Construction 

The women's section, a separate part of the "new jail" reached from the 
fifth floor, follows the same plan of cell construction as the men's quarters 
in the "new jail." It is much smaller, the number of cells available for women 
being thirty-one. On one day in May, when it was inspected, there were forty- 
three women prisoners. The cells are arranged in three tiers, and there are two 
"bull pens," the second and third tiers of cells opening into one "bull pen." 
There are six cells in a row and therefore thirty-six cells in all, but five of these 
are used for service requirements. On the day when the number of prisoners 
was forty-three, each of fourteen cells contained two prisoners, each of eleven 
contained one, and six cells were empty. The doubling up, in spite of the fact 
that six cells were empty was due to the desire of some of the girls to cell to- 
gether. Each cell is eight feet, four inches long, six feet wide and seven and a 
half feet high, containing 375 cubic feet. Since 500 cubic feet is regarded as the 
minimum desirable for health purposes, there is overcrowding here, as in the 
men's department, especially in cells containing two women. 

Ventilation 

Through ventilation is as absent from the cells for women as from those 
for men, the cells being solidly enclosed on three sides. 

The Daily Life 

Recreation 

The life of the women prisoners is a shade less depressing than that of 
the men. They do not have much, however, with which to occupy their time. 
The same schedule is followed in general in the women's department as in the 
men's. The "bull pen" used for recreation four hours a day has a piano; this is 
played by the prisoners and occasionally some of the girls try to dance in the 
cramped space. Plain tables and benches almost fill the "bull pen" and at these 



(a) "The Jails of Illinois," Institution Quarterly, March 31, 1916, p. 11. 

112 




Women *** quarter**— Heading and recreation room. 
(Photo by F. P. Burke). 



the girls sit and read, talk or play cards. One of the cells on this tier is used as a 
smoking room by the women prisoners. 

Meals 

The women do not eat in their cells, as do the men. The second "bull 
pen" is used as a mess hall, six small dining tables with benches filling it. The 
girls are orderly in their conduct at meals and require no greater supervision 
at that time than when they are in the recreation room above. This is a great 
improvement over the way the men eat. 

Hospital 
The hospital room in the women's section, containing three beds, is rea- 
sonably light and airy. It does not contain, however, either a toilet or a bathroom. 
Patients must go through the dining room to a cell in order to use a toilet, or if 
too ill a bed-pan must be carried by this route. To bathe, they are compelled 
to ascend two flights of stairs to the general bathroom for women prisoners. 

Occupation and Employment 
The jail provides nothing for the women to read and, with the exception 
of a few who volunteer to do certain kinds of work, does not attempt to do 
anything to occupy their hands or minds. Two girls are allowed to repair 
mattress covers, linen and other articles belonging to the county, on sewing 
machines; they spend the hours when the other girls are in the recreation 
room at this task. The "scrub list" contains five girls; these keep the women's 
department and the second-floor guard room clean. Two other girls assist 
in the dining room. Nine women prisoners are thus given employment for an 
hour or so to four hours a day. That a greater number would welcome an 
opportunity to be busy is indicated by the matron's statement: "We always 
have more volunteers for the sewing than we can use on our two machines." 

Cleanliness 

In neatness and cleanliness the women's section is an agreeable contrast 
to the men's. The cells are clean, the floors are kept scrubbed and everything 
presents a spotless appearance. Among jail officials it is customary to attribute 
this to the "woman's touch." There is a pleasant flavor of gallantry about 
this explanation, and it doubtless would be unobjectionable were it not that 
the explanation has been seized upon as justifying in large measure the dirtiness 
of the men's quarters. This error will not be committed by those who know 
how clean a ship at sea can be, or what effective scrubbers are produced by 
every army and navy in the world. There is no reason, of course, why a man's 
jail should not be clean, provided the dirt does not get too large an initial start. 

The County Jail Women's Quarters represent decency itself when com- 
pared with the police lock-ups where women first arrested are still held. 

2. IN THE DISTRICT POLICE STATIONS 

At present, women are held at the following five police stations :( a) 
"Harrison St. Annex of the South Clark St, Station," District 1-A, 625 
South Clark St. 



(a) Information furnished May 1922) by Secretary to Supt. of Chit-ago Police Dept. 

114 






'Hyde Park Station," 4th District, 5233 Lake Park Ave. 

"Stock Yards Station," 12th District, 4726 South Halsted St. 

"South Chicago Station," 7th District, 2938 E. 89th St. 

"West Chicago Ave. Station," 22nd District, 731 North Racine Ave. 

These are not the worst stations in the city. Until the last few months, 
women were still being held in the damp, dark basement cells of the "East Chi- 
cago Ave. Station," reached by a narrow flight of stairs leading through vacant 
rooms, and adjoining a stable. (a) Until just before the war, large numbers of 
women were held in the "Maxwell St. Station," with its open sewers, its grime 
and vermin;( a) in the "Desplaines St. Sation," with its underground kitchen,( t>) 
and in others which "are indeed the worst in the world. "( b) The present police 
detention quarters for women are not in basements, but, with the exception of 
the dormitory of the "Harrison St. Annex," they are all of cramped, cell-bar 
construction, usually shut off from light and fresh air. 

Harrison St. Annex 

The largest space is available at the Harrison St. Annex, with its twelve- 
bed dormitory on the third floor, and rear cell-room. The former is a long, 
shabby, narrow room, its walls dingy with worn-off paint, its beds and mat- 
tresses far from clean. A large bare table in the room is used for dining pur- 
poses at meal time. In the center of the dark, ill-smelling room behind, with a 
corridor around the sides, is the cell block. There are three cells on a side, in 
one tier, back to back. Each contains open plumbing and a wooden plank 
bench. As recently as 1918, one of these barred cells was furnished with a high 
stationary chair, in which at times, insane or violent women were strapped. 
The treatment afforded by such means of detention is described by the State 
Inspector of Jails in 1916, as follows: "In its care of the insane in the precinct 
stations, Chicago shows a spirit less enlightened than that shown in the smallest 
hamlet out in the State. Only in the city of Chicago are the insane treated as 
criminals and held as dangerous prisoners . . . The Inspector was 
shown a strait- jacket which had just been taken from the body of an insane 
woman. This jacket had been tightened about the woman; she had been 
forcibly placed in the chair, and hands, feet, limbs and body strapped until 
she could not move. Her screams and cries, it is said, could be heard in all 
parts of the building. "(a) 

Treatment of the insane in this community has markedly improved since 
1916. It is to be hoped that these mediaeval cruelties are no longer resorted to. 
And yet, even with the modern facilities of a well-equipped Psychopathic Hos- 
pital conveniently within reach, it is true that "psychopathic cases" are still held 
over night in the cells of Chicago's police stations. 

With one in a bed and one in a cell, the "Harrison St. Annex" could house 
twenty-four women. It is not always full, but, at other times, the numbers 
herded into it are beyond capacity limit. This station is far from the type 
where constructive work may be begun for those who have taken perhaps their 
first mis-step. 
\ 

(a) "Chicago Police Stations," Institution Quarterly, March 31, 1916, pp. 12, 82, SO, 3C9. 

(b) "What Shall Be Done for Chicago's Women Offenders," Report of Committee on Penal and Correctional 
Institutions, p. 5. 



i 



115 



Hyde Park Station 

Women's quarters at the Hyde Park Station are regarded as the best now 
afforded in the police lock-ups. They are situated on the second floor, in a 
large room, on the left of which, behind a heavy iron grating, is a square enclo- 
sure containing six iron beds, a table and some chairs. At the right of the en- 
closed space are three cells, two of them furnished with two benches, one with a 
bench and a toilet. At the back of the cell block is another cell containing a 
bathtub and wash-stand, both, at the time of a recent inspection, very dirty 
and evidently little used. "The matron's office adjoins the general room. All 
persons entering this room, have a clear view of all parts of the woman's room." 
Ten or twelve women prisoners, it will be seen, is the capacity of this station. 

Stock Yards Station 

This station shares responsibility of the general city district with the Hyde 
Park Station, each caring for the prisoners of the other when its capacity is 
overcrowded or the matrons of the other are off duty. The space for women 
at the Stock Yards Station is, with the exception of the South Chicago Station, 
smaller than that at any of the other stations now in use. It affords, on the 
second floor, three cells against an inner wall, which contain in all four beds. 
In each cell is an open toilet and, in one corner of the entrance space, a dirty 
wash-stand. The plumbing appears to be old and unsanitary. The Women's 
quarters are reached through devious narrow passageways, at the end of one of 
which, the entrance to the cell room, is the matron's desk. Back of the room is 
the station's court room. The place is dark and cheerless and frequently very 
crowded. 

South Chicago Station 

At this station, two cells with one bed each are provided for women. They 
open from the matron's room on the first floor. In the open space before them 
is a bench and a sink with running water. Each cell has a toilet, but there are 
no bathing facilities. "The fronts and roofs of the cells are barred. There is 
no separation of sounds." ( ») This small space is said to be adequate for this 
district, as "women are seldom held here over night." Many of the offenders 
are mothers of families and are allowed to sign their own bonds and return to 
their children. 

West Chicago Ave. Station 

This is understood to be the only station on the North Side now used for 
women's detention. Women are held in a space at the back of the building 
behind the court room on the second floor. There are five cells, one of which 
contains four* beds, which give this station capacity for eight women. At the 
time of recent visits, these quarters were clean. But the place is dark and 
dingy. The matron must work entirely by artificial light, as no daylight pene- 
trates to the outer enclosure in which her desk is placed. The North Side was 
formerly equipped with two Detention Homes for Women, which closed last 
year, for reasons to be discussed later. 

(a) instimti( n Quarterly, March 31, \mo. p. S2. 

116 



General Administration 

tin all of these lockups, the quarters set apart for women are mere adjuncts 
to the detention equipment for men. Their total capacity is about fifty women. 
As is apparent from the above description, practically no segregation of different 
classes of prisoners is possible in these crowded stations. It is still not un- 
common to find in them boys and girls whose proper place pending investigation 
or hearing is the Juvenile Detention Home. As the State Inspector of Jails has 
reported, "The clean young first offender is exposed to the contagion of vermin 
and the most repulsive diseases, and to the greater danger of moral contagion. 
These dangers are not occasional in the Chicago Stations; they are continuous. 
They exist twenty-four hours a day every day in the year."( a ) 

These quarters for women are presided over by 34 matrons, on shifts, many 
of whom have been in the service for years. In addition to guarding their pri- 
soners, looking after their material needs, accompanying them at times in the 
patrol wagons, the matrons are expected to keep record of prisoners' statements 
as to name, age, nationality, occupation, civil status, and charge. No record is 
kept of alcoholism, drug addiction, health or mental state. There is no au- 
thorized social service and no attempt at preventive work with the persons 
who are arrested and brought in again and again. 

Some of the matrons are among the most bitter complainants over the lack 
of ordinary provision for cleanliness, over the fact that women cannot properly 
wash nor bathe, over the lack of sterilization for the towels and bedding that 
must serve all, too frequently with no change. 

There are no facilities for preparing meals at any of the stations. The 
regular jail fare of sausage, bread without butter, coffee without cream or 
sugar, is brought in from outside and furnished for all alike. If prisoners 
have money the matrons or janitors will usually buy food or fruit for them. 

There is no provision for occupation nor recreation. The only relief from 
stagnation occurs on Sundays when religious workers visit the stations and 
hold services. 

During the war a more modern system of detention for women was at- 
tempted, in the opening of three police "Detention Homes." The experiment 
was not regarded by the Police Department as successful, but requires mention 
in any presentation of this stage of the treatment of women offenders in Chi- 
cago. 

3. The Three Detention Homes Experiment 

Criticism of the condition of Chicago's police stations led in January, 
1915, to a City Council appropriation, contingent on a bond issue of $1,199,000, 
"for building new or remodeling existing police stations." Under the heading 
"Stations for Women Prisoners" there was appropriated as a part of this sum: 

$15,000 for remodeling the Cottage Grove Ave. Station 

$25,000 for remodeling the present Maxwell St. Station and installing 

a Morals Court 
$ 5,000 for remodeling the present Hudson Ave. Station 



$45,000 



(a) In -titration Quarterly, March 31, 1010, pp. 86, 88. 

117 



For three years, as far as women offenders were concerned, the appropria- 
tion lay dormant. Objections to the three-station plan had been raised by 
women's civic groups who believed that one central women's detention home 
should be established. In the fall of 1918, however, three renovated police 
stations, the "Hudson Ave." at 1501 Hudson Ave., the "West North Ave." at 
2256 West North Ave., and the "Stanton Ave." at 454 E. 35th St., were reopen- 
ed and christened "Detention Homes for Women," Numbers I, II, and III, 
respectively. There was apparently a sincere desire on the part of then 
Acting Chief of Police Alcock to create a new procedure in the detention of 
women accused of crime. A Women's Advisory Committee, composed of 
representatives of civic and social agencies, was created, and was furnished 
with headquarters in Chief Alcock's offices. 

Detention Homes II and III, though freshly scrubbed and painted, were 
located in old two-story buildings, where segregation of the various types of 
women and girls was practically impossible. Each had a capacity of 20 beds, 
in dormitory space. Detention Home I, a three-story building,*was far more 
commodious, and, with the addition of partitions, could easily have lent itself 
to the separation of prisoners. The second-floor dormitory contained "24 
beds, a small bedroom, a. room for the matrons and several small rooms with 
shower baths, lavatories and toilets. On the third floor were two large dormi- 
tories, one small bedroom, lavatory and toilet rooms. "(a) Classification of 
prisoners, however, was never in fact effected. The third floor was rarely if 
ever used. The first-floor cells were used for a time "for male prisoners brought 
in by the homicide squad." In the second-floor dormitory, all the women pri- 
soners of every degree of offense and condition, lost children and the homeless 
mingled freely together, using the same drinking cups, towels, lavatories and 
toilets, and too often, the same bedding. Never, during the three-year experi- 
ment, were these "detention homes" equipped with enough bedding to afford 
a regular change "between prisoners." The Woman's Advisory Committee 
issued frequent recommendations on this point as well as on many others. 
Recommendations, however, were not acted upon and the Committee finally 
ceased to function. 

Women were never placed in charge of these institutions. Police matrons, 
of course, were assigned to the dormitories, but each Detention Home was pre- 
sided over by a Lieutenant and three Desk Sergeants. It soon became custo- 
mary to hold men also at these stations, in basement or first-floor cells. Many 
children also found their way into these stations, owing, it was stated, to the 
frequent overcrowding or quarantine of the Juvenile Detention Home. At 
Detention Home III alone, in 1919, 820 Juveniles were held.( a) Women began 
to be taken to other police stations, and soon the experiment had disintegrated. 
"During the summer and early fall of 1921, the three Detention Homes for 
Women were abandoned, and the Police Department returned to the practice 
of holding women" arrested "at the district stations," described in the fore- 
going section. 

Undoubtedly, the overhead expense involved in the operation of the three 



(a) "The Municipal House of Detention. A Report for the year 1919," by Harriet Comstock, Field Agent. 
U. S. Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board. 

118 



was a large factor in their discontinuance. It has been estimated that the cost 
per person held at these institutions in 1919 approximated from $12.00 to $15.00, 
expensive lodging, ( a) truly in view of the fact that many remained only a single 
night. It would appear that the Three Detention Home experience amply 
sustained the prior contention of the City-County Crime Commission that 
the number of women arrested is not large enough to warrant provision in three 
stations. 

Just how large a detention problem the arrested women of this City and 
County do present is made clear in the following pages. 

II. SIZE OF DETENTION HOME NEEDED, AS SHOWN BY 
NUMBERS OF WOMEN DETAINED IN CHICAGO 
AND COOK COUNTY 

1. Number of Women Arrested in Chicago 

Daily 

"Every twenty-four hours of the year," wrote Miss Ida Tarbell in 1913, 
"there is collected from the streets of New York City, and taken before judges 
of its common courts, a stream of women, usually between twenty and thirty 
years of age, who in the eyes of the officers arresting them are guilty of breaking 
some law of the State or ordinance of the City. This stream of girlhood and 
womanhood never ceases. There are days when its volume is fuller than others, 
but it rarely falls under forty — night after night it reaches fifty or more. It 
has its seasons. In summer-time the inflow of prostitution is greatest; at 
Christmas-time of larceny." In almost the same words might Chicago, in 1922, 
describe its stream of women who find their way, through officers of the law, 
into its police stations and jail. The stream in Chicago varied, on ordinary days 
in 1921, from 15 to 40, but most frequently, on eighty-one days of the year, it 
numbered between 25 and 30. (Table B-l). Occasionally it rose to 45 
or 50. On two days of 1921, it reached 59, and, on another 63. It dropped, in 
the early days of 1921, to 3 or 4 or 5 on seven days in January. On eleven days 
of the same month, it did not exceed 10. 

Monthly 

In fact, January may be described as the ' 'lightest" month of the year 1921 ; 
July, August and September as the "heaviest." (Table B-2). It follows 
that in those months the population of the police station tends to increase. Ir- 
respective of those charged with violation of traffic ordinances, for whom court 
summons, not detention, is employed, 303 women for whom detention quarters 
might have been required, were arrested in January; in July, 1041; in August, 
1 180 ; and in September, 972. During February and during November, between 
600 and 650 women were arrested; during March and December between 700 
and 800; during April, May, June and October between 850 and 880. 

Annually 

The total number of women arrested in 1921 was 10,555; in 1920 it was 

(a) Ibid. 

119 



7467; in 1919, 8469. During the war years, the number rose in 1918 to 10,396; 
in 1917, to 13,685, dropping slightly in 1916, to 11,280; but in 1915 and 1914, 
reaching, respectively, 14,671 and 14,415. (a) 

2. Additional Women Held 

The number of women arrested, however, does not represent the whole 
number of women who may be detained in police lock-ups. Among the latter, 
are a considerable number who are held as wftnesses or as suspects, who, because 
the evidence against them is insufficient, are not formally charged with violation 
of law; in other words, are not "booked" by the police. Others there are, listed 
in the matron's records as "runaways," "strays," "lost," "lodgers," etc., some 
of whom have sought the stations voluntarily, for advice or help. These num- 
bers tend at present to augment the population of police stations. During one 
month for instance, December, 1921, according to facts furnished by the Police 
Department, the "number of women handled" in the various police stations 
exceeded the number against whom charges were placed by 112, or an average 
of 3 or 4 a day for that month. That many of these, during the period while 
plans are worked out for them, could be cared for in institutions such as the 
Chicago Woman's Shelter, the Sarah Hackett Stevenson Memorial Lodging 
House, the Chicago Home for the Friendless, the Traveler's Aid Home, the 
Melisa Evans Club, or other agencies of a lodging house nature appears en- 
tirely feasible. The provision really needed for these "innocents" in a police 
detention home is insignificant. A detention home for women might well act 
as a clearing house for such cases, but it would seem to be far preferable to 
give them shelter for the night in institutions such as those above mentioned. 

3. Effect of Bail on Size of Detention Home Needed 

Not all the women actually arrested and held in Chicago remain in police 
stations or the County Jail over night. A certain proportion, of course, secure 
bail. Accurate and complete bail-bond records classified by sex, are kept 
neither by the Police, nor by the State's Attorney, nor by the clerks of the 
Municipal or Criminal Courts. From the various branches of the Municipal 
Court where women's cases are chiefly heard, that is, the Morals Court, and 
the branches at the "Harrison Street Annex," at Maxwell, and at Chicago Ave. 
Stations, estimates fix the number of women who secure bail at three to four 
thousand a year. The Municipal Court Clerk keeps a record of bail-bonds issued 
to persons charged with "Criminal offenses," understanding by that term, per- 
sons alleged to have violated state laws as distinguished from city ordinances. 
Among those persons, as nearly as could be estimated, there were about 900 
women in 1921. The State's Attorney, in a separate set of records, tabulates 
the bail-bonds issued to persons charged with crime, as their cases proceed 
upward from the jurisdiction of the lower court. Among those who secured 
bail through this channel in 1921, the cases of 105 women were counted. It is, 
therefore, seen if last year may be accepted as typical, that four to five thou- 
sand women secure bail annually. This figure represents a group which reduces 
the jail and police station population by eleven to fourteen a day, and demon- 



(&) Figures for 1921 furnished by Secretary to Superintendent of Police. For previous years figure 

» niuwl Reports Of Police Department of Chicago as follows: 1911. p. 11: 1915, p. 13; 1916, p. 21; 1917, p 
p. 21 ; 1919, p. 22; 1920, p. 11). 



js are from 
p. 21; 1918. 



120 



strates the fact that detention quarters need not be provided for all arrested 
women whose cases are not immediately disposed of. 

That there is opportunity for still further reduction of the woman police 
station population in future may be gathered from an examination of the 
records of women convicted in Chicago. 

4. Relation of Numbers of Women Convicted to Size of 

Detention Home 

Of the thousands of women arrested, a very large proportion, as in New 
York, are dismissed when they come to trial, "because of insufficient evidence, 
or of some circumstance which convinces the magistrate that clemency is 
wisdom. " ( a) Police Department Reports do not record the number of women con- 
victed in Chicago, so that a comparison with those arrested cannot be made. 
A very important relation, however, exists between the number of charges 
against women and the number of convictions. (Table B-3). In 1921 
there were 3551 convictions of women in court; 10,857 charges against women. 
In 1920, the totals were 2345 convictions, 7696 charges. In 1918, there were 
3248 convictions of women by Municipal and Criminal Courts; in 1917, 4727 
convictions; in 1916, 3727; in 1915, 6880; in 1914, 7210. A glance at the above 
mentioned table reveals the large numbers of women whose cases must either 
never have come to trial or have been dismissed when they were heard in court. 
In 1914, the percentage of convictions to charges was 48.6. Since that time, 
the percentage of women's convictions has dropped even lower, to 45.1 per cent 
in 1915; to 32.1 per cent in 1916; rising to 33.6 per cent in 1917, dropping in 
1918 and 1920 to 30.5 per cent and in 1921 as low as 23.4 per cent. Great 
discrepancy between the numbers of police charges and numbers of convictions 
is not a new discovery. The City Council Committee on Crime in 1915 set 
forth that fact, reinforced by detailed statistical analyses, and made clear 
the waste and dangers involved, facts to which further allusion is made in other 
parts of the Jail Survey. 

Aside from the broader considerations arising out of the large excess of 
charges and arrests over convictions, that fact is significant from the stand- 
point of the size of detention quarters needed for women. Forty-eight and six- 
tenths per cent, it must be remembered, was the highest proportion during the 
last eight years, of convictions of women in court to charges against women. 
Hand in hand with a more discriminating consideration of offenders in court, 
which might be expected to change the percentage of women convicted, should 
undoubtedly go more discrimination in making arrests. The latter course will, 
without question, reduce the number of women held in detention. 

It is therefore seen, by way of summary, that of the possible 50 or 60 
women arrested in a day in Chicago, exclusive of those charged with violation 
of traffic ordinances and not held in lock-ups, 11 to 14 per day secure bail. 
This means that police detention quarters need not provide for more than 50 
women. This figure does not include, as heretofore pointed out, those now 
held in police stations, but not "booked," for whom provisions are elsewhere 
available. It does include those arrested, but later discharged by the courts, a 
considerable number of whom, as police and court procedure are improved, 



(a) "What Shall Be Done with the Young Prostitute," Ida Tarbell, 1913, p. 3. 

121 



will cease to fill up undeserved quarters of incarceration. So that, from the 
City's standpoint, at present, even during its "heavy" arrest periods, space for 
50 women may be considered adequate. 

Cook County, as will be seen, adds to this group of women, about 30 
more, necessitating detention quarters in both city and county, at present, for 
80 women in all. 

5. Daily Woman Population in the County Jail 
Total Number Held 

At the present time, as far as can be ascertained from the records, the 
number of women ordinarily detained at any one time in the county jail, 
ranges from 25 to 35. On April 3, 1922, the opening of the spring Criminal 
Court Session, there were 32 women. On March 6, the opening of the previous 
session, there were 34. On February 6, there were 27 women; on January 2, 
29; on December 5, 29. 

Unfortunately, the County Jail does not maintain a regular record of the 
daily number of women held in that institution. That number is obtainable only 
for the first Mondays of each month, which are the dates of the openings of the 
Criminal Court Sessions, or for the two dates in the year, June 1st and De- 
cember 1st, when the jail register is transferred to a new book. On the first 
Monday of each month, an inventory of the jail population is made, classified 
by cause of detention, for the Clerk of the Criminal Court. Since the pri- 
soners' names are listed, it is possible to count the number of probable women 
under each classification. In case of doubt as to names, since adequate deten- 
tion quarters are in question, the larger, rather than the smaller number, was 
accepted. 

For twelve days during the last Jail fiscal year, the numbers of women 
held, ran as follows: November 8, 1921, 27 women; October 3, 25 women; 
September 6, 21 women; August 1, 16 women; July 6, 19 women; June 11, 18 
women; May 3, 16 women; April 4, 18 women; March 7, 14 women; February 7, 
21 women; January 3, 20 women; December 6, 23 women. In other words, 
records show a daily woman population in 1921 ranging from 14 to 27. During 
the previous year, the number on the first Mondays of October, and November, 
dropped to 9, but ranged to 20 on the first Mondays of June and July. 

Table B-4 sets forth the woman jail population on given dates, 
from the standpoint of numerical frequency. 

Number Serving Jail Sentence 

The number of women serving jail sentence at any one time is relatively 
small. Upon the first Mondays of the months of the current year, as well as 
those during 1920 and 1921, the number never exceeded five. It reached that 
number only on four first Mondays. On six Mondays, the number serving jail 
sentence was only one. At other times the women numbered two or three or 
four. Though these numbers are small, in view of jail overcrowding the use to 
which each cell is devoted is extremely important. There is every reason to 
believe that the immediate transfer of sentenced women to the Woman's 
Department of the House of Correction would be a simple matter. In that 
institution there is at present, in both the men's and women's quarters, much 

122 



unused space. Moreover, when the local Woman's House of Shelter finally 
becomes a reality and supplants the Woman's Department of the Workhouse, 
it is to be hoped that women prisoners sentenced because of petty offenses may 
be given a type of corrective treatment which neither the jail nor the Workhouse 
affords. 

Number Awaiting Trial on Indictment 

The largest group of women held in the County Jail are those awaiting trial 
in the Criminal Court. On April 3, 1922, there were 21 women "awaiting trial 
on indictment;" on March 6, 1922, there were 20; on February 6, 11; on 
January 2, 1918, and on December 5, 17. During the jail fiscal year 1921, the 
highest number awaiting trial at the opening of any Criminal Court session 
was 13, on November 8, 1921 ; the next highest, 10, on February 7, 1921. Dur- 
ing the previous jail fiscal year, the number of such women was 11 on three first 
Mondays, 12 on another, and ranged from 4 to 7 at other Criminal Court 
sessions. 

Number Awaiting Action of the Grand Jury 

In the other two stages of criminal procedure, there are fewer women in 
the County Jail awaiting action. The group awaiting action of the Grand Jury 
at the opening of Criminal Court sessions is apparently not larger than six. 
In fact, it reached that number on only three of the opening Mondays, all in 
the Jail fiscal year 1921. During the present year, this group has varied from 
two to five. During the year 1920, on one first Monday there were five women 
awaiting action of the Grand Jury; on two Mondays the group numbered three; 
on three Mondays, two; on four Mondays there was only one woman each, held 
for the Grand Jury; on two Mondays, none. 

Awaiting Action Municipal Court 

This group is somewhat larger, ranging from one to six women, but more 
often numbering three or four. 

Based on available records, it appears, therefore, that, exclusive of those 
undergoing sentence, the whole group of women in the County Jail, during the 
last two years, has not exceeded 31, and that it most frequently numbered 
between 12 and 18. It seems reasonably safe to conclude that Cook County's 
detention quarters for women pending trial at any one time, need not exceed 
equipment for 20 to 25 women. 

Length of Time in Jail 

The length of time women are held in the County Jail varies from a day to 
a year or more. For the small group who constitute a day's woman population 
at the County Jail, a computation, related to reason for release from jail, was 
made for those present on December 1, 1920 (Table B-5). Of those 31 
women, six secured bail either in Municipal or Criminal Court and were released 
from jail within a month. Four were sentenced, two to the House of Correction, 
one each to the Penitentiary, and "The Reformatory." Whether by the latter 
is meant the State Training School for girls of Juvenile Court age at Geneva, 
since Illinois has no Woman's Reformatory, the jail records do not disclose. 
The three women who were sent to the Bridewell and Joliet each spent between 
two and four months in the Jail before they were sentenced. The other spent 

124 






more than five months there before she was sent to "the Reformatory." Whether 
that institution could readily influence her to "reform," after so long a jail 
experience, is doubtful. Six of the 31 women in this day's population were, 
at some time during their stay, sentenced to the County Jail itself. One spent 
a total length of time in that institution of 258 days, or between eight and 
nine months; another, of 367 days, or a year and two days. The terms of the 
other four ranged from two to six and a half months. Five women out of the 
day's population were finally, after from two or three months in jail, placed 
on probation. If they were candidates for probation at first, one wonders 
whether the social treatment of their crimes could have been aided by the pre- 
ceding period of jail incarceration. One of the very foundation stones of pro- 
bation is the assumption that it should begin before the offender is schooled in 
crime or associates with criminals. Three other women, after ten to thirty 
days in the Jail, are entered upon the records as "not returned from the Munici- 
pal Court." Presumably, their offenses were petty. Five of the 31 women 
were not convicted in any court; three having been "no-billed" by the Grand 
Jury; and two having been found not guilty by the Criminal Court. Three of 
these five women spent from ten to twenty days in jail, one spent almost two 
months, and the other, almost five months. Two women held in the jail on 
the day under observation were finally "delivered to the U. S. Marshal," one 
after seven days in jail, another after one hundred and eighteen days. 

The futility of the present jail phase of the treatment of women offenders 
stands out after a cursory study of even a few of those who are incarcerated. 
It is dangerous for any community to provide a Tombs where arrested persons 
may be sent and forgotten, while the law drags out its weary way. Rapid, 
searching, comprehensive investigation while the accused person awaits trial 
not only makes for justice and social safety, but, from a utilitarian standpoint, 
cuts down the size of a jail or detention home which a community must support. 
It would manifestly be folly to build and maintain women's detention quarters 
large enough to make the law's delays convenient. What the unnecessary 
delays are, and some possible remedies, will be elaborated upon elsewhere 
in this Jail Survey. Until they are corrected, there will run through the woman's 
daily detention population of this community, adding to its size, a group some- 
what under 30 in number, for whom space will for a time be demanded. In 
fact, omitting those sentenced, these are the jail women, a group that will 
steadily diminish in size as criminal court procedure is improved. 

III. CHARACTER OF WOMEN POPULATION OF THE COUNTY 
JAIL AND CITY POLICE STATIONS 

1. Age 

County Jail 

Perhaps the most striking fact in the consideration of the types of women 
prisoners in the police stations and jail is their comparative youth. Three 
hundred and twenty out of a total of 477, or two-thirds of those held in the 
County Jail during the fiscal year 1921, were, according to jail records (Table 
B-6), not more than thirty years of age. In 1920, the proportion was even 

125 



higher — 73 per cent. In 1919, 1916 and 1914, the other recent years for which 
jail reports are available, the percentage of women thirty years or under ranged 
from 55 per cent to 65 per cent. Young women and girls under twenty-one 
years of age, moreover, some of them still juveniles, comprise from 10 per cent 
to 19 per cent of the annual woman jail population. 

Among All Women Arrested 

In the city as a whole, police statistics (Table B-7), show likewise 
that more than half of all the women arrested are not more than thirty years of 
age. From 6 per cent to 10 per cent of all arrested are girls under twenty-one 
years of age. In 1921, 53 girls of Juvenile Court age (Table B-8), five of 
whom were only fifteen years old, one as young as fourteen, were arrested by the 
police. This little group, of course, should never be taken to police stations. 
For them, the City and County long ago provided quarters in a Juvenile De- 
tention Home adapted to their age. 

The "older girls", from eighteen to twenty-one years of age, form an almost 
constant element among those "picked up" each day by the police. During 
1921, there were twenty-four days, to be sure, when no girls of these ages were 
arrested, fifty- two days upon each of which, one "older girl" was arrested 
(Table B-9). Upon each of one hundred and forty-four days, two or 
three girls from eighteen to twenty-one were apprehended, and upon one 
hundred and forty-four other days, from four to ten. The number of girls of 
these ages arrested in any one day mounted once during the year to eleven. 

These are the girls noticed first as incorrigibles, who are "difficult in 
school," have tendencies to waywardness, are stubborn perhaps, emotionally 
unstable, nervous or "silly," who emerge from adolescence with very little 
guidance. Some are from broken or demoralized homes, or from homes where 
recreation is unknown. Some have come from small towns or country places 
and have found the big city confusing at first, and, in the end, exciting and 
overpowering; "young women," as Miss Addams says, "whose undisciplined 
minds are fatally assailed by the subtleties and sophistries of city life, and who 
have lost their bearing in the midst of a multitude of new imaginative im- 
pressions. "( a) "It is a noteworthy fact," says a recent Municipal Court Report, 
"that from sixty to ninety per cent of cases brought in the Morals Court are 
those of girls coming from small adjacent towns or from rural districts." ( b) The 
very awkwardness of their first mis-step invites the attention of the police. 
The real problem with the young woman offender, is not the relatively simple 
determination of whether or not she is guilty of the "crime" with which she is 
charged. It is rather the discovery of the contributing circumstances which 
have caused her arrest and the formulation of a plan for her future course. 
During the detention period, while such a plan is developed, she should obvi- 
ously not be subjected to the influence of "old and hardened offenders." Any 
wisely built detention home will therefore make careful separate provision 
for the younger members of its household in whose future lies so much ground 
for hope. 

(a) "A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, ".lane Addams, 1912, p. 215. 

(b) "Morals Court," Judge Arnold Heap, p. US, Keport of Municipal Court of Chicago, 1917-1920. 

126 



2. Charge 
County Jail Women 

The type of offense charged, coupled with youth, gives added weight to the 
argument for careful classification of offenders. There are girls of eighteen 
and nineteen, barely over Juvenile Court age, and girls in the early twenties 
held in the County Jail on charges of "delinquency," "disorderly conduct," 
"obtaining money or goods by false pretenses," "larceny." (Table B-10), 
In 1921, in the County Jail there were two girls of seventeen, juveniles, one held 
for forgery, the other for assault with a deadly weapon and fornication, charges 
so far-reaching as to warrant the most careful investigation, before trial, by a 
skilled probation officer, a period of quiet detention, and a hearing under the 
rightful jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court. The legal line between juveniles 
and adults is often, in the light of an individual's sensitiveness and moulda- 
bility, indistinct and artificial. There are other young women of impressionable 
years held for trial upon serious charges, who profit, as does the community at 
large, by the same type of treatment as that now established for their younger 
sisters. 

An examination of the charges upon which women at the County Jail are 
annually held reveals a wide range. For a number varying, during the years 
1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, and 1921, from 100 to 422, the County Jail records only 
show ' 'Violation of Municipal Code. ' ' Under that classification are presumably 
many of the petty misdeeds. Among the 40 or more offenses listed, by far the 
most frequent charge is larceny (Table B-ll). During the years above 
mentioned, from 120 to 179 women annually found their way into the County 
Jail because they were believed guilty of this crime; 13 to 26 because believed 
guilty of robbery; 10 to 21 of receiving stolen property; 4 to 46 of burglary. 
During each of those years, the County Jail held a group of women varying 
from 7 to 31 charged with "confidence game," from 3 to 23, with the exception 
of none in 1920, charged with fornication; from 1 to 19, charged with assault 
or assault and battery. In 1921, 3 women were held in the County Jail charged 
with murder, in 1920, 7; and in 1919, 6; while in 1916 and 1914 the number of 
women in the County Jail charged with that crime was 32 and 23 respectively. 

It is evident that women charged with murder, or with other serious crimes 
such as adultery, bigamy, embezzlement, forgery, etc., should be held in deten- 
tion quarters separate from women charged with less serious offenses, and 
moreover, in rooms separate from each other. The woman who has never been 
guilty of a sex offense should not occupy quarters with women to whom fornica- 
cation, soliciting or pandering are familiar. 

Among All Women Arrested 

The proportion which these offenses bear among all the women arrested 
in the city are apparent in an examination of Police Department figures. In 
1920, for instance, 1266 women were arrested in Chicago on felony charges; 
6201 on charges classed as misdemeanors. (Table B-12). An over- 
whelmingly large proportion were charged with disorderly conduct; 3652, or 
48 per cent, of a total of 7467 women arrested. Nine hundred and seventy-five 
were alleged inmates of disorderly houses. Nine hundred and thirty were 






127 



charged with larceny. In both of these groups, the younger women were 
present in strikingly larger numbers. It is outside the province of this report 
to enter into a detailed discussion of crime. The range of charges, however, 
points to wide variety in the background, the motives and the possibilities of 
those who are alleged to be guilty, and to the individual treatment they require. 
Such selective treatment during the detention period must obviously begin 
with the classification and separation of the different types of offenders. 

3. Number of Times Arrested 

Quite as important as the type of offense, in the segregation of persons 
pending trial, is the fact of possible recidivism. Among the group held in any 
jail there are those who have been arrested not only once, but twice and oftener. 
Until there is established an adequate system of detecting old offenders by a 
wider use of finger prints, by means of a Central Bureau of Criminal Records 
and by clearance with other cities, there can, of course, be no accurate classifi- 
cation of accused persons according to repetition of offense. 

At the present time, however, County Jail records do indicate the number 
of times inmates admit having been arrested. In the woman population, as 
may be seen from Table B-13, 22 per cent of those held in the jail in 1921 
admitted one previous arrest, 10 per cent more admitted three or more arrests. 
The same general proportion maintains in the past-war year 1919. About 33 
per cent of those held in the jail that year admitted previous arrests. In the 
pre-war year 1916, with a larger women population, about 38 per cent admitted 
previous arrests. 

The number of arrests admitted, related to age and charge, reemphasizes the 
necessity for differentiation in treatment during detention. A woman charged 
with adultery or the confidence game, for instance, arrested for the fourth time : 
or alleged guilty of assault with a deadly weapon or of street walking arrested 
for the fifth time; or charged with larceny or robbery, arrested six or more times 
— these women, experienced in transgression, should clearly not be detained in 
the same quarters with women and girls for whom disorderly conduct, con- 
tempt of court or debt may be their first offenses, or with those whose only 
offense, as entered in jail records, is "safe-keeping." The figures relating to 
number of arrests, in Tables B-14, and B-15 as well as in Table B-13, are based 
upon unverified statements of the women, made at the time of their entry into 
the jail. Whether 33 per cent is an under or over-estimate of. those with pre- 
vious records cannot be ascertained. Regardless of the accuracy of the propor- 
tion, however, the fact remains that Cook County, like all other communities, 
has, among the women who reach its jail, old and new offenders and that it 
must, th3refore, make separate provision in its place of detention for these 
differing types. 

4. Physical Conditions and Habits 

It is axiomatic that, in a properly planned detention home for women, 
there should be adequate hospital and clinic facilities. That they need not be 
elaborate is determined by the fact that detention itself is to be regarded as a 
temporary matter. Among the women held in the County Jail are some who 
are afflicted with skin diseases, with syphilis and gonorrhea, with tuberculosis; 
others whose heart, lungs or general physical condition is in need of medical 

12S 



attention. Undoubtedly, the maladies of many completely escape detection. 

An eighteen-year old girl, for instance, was arrested last fall on a charge of 
grand larceny and taken to the County Jail to await action by the Grand Jury. 
She had a history of venereal disease, a Juvenile Court record showing her to 
be a psychopathic problem and, at the time of arrest, was pregnant. She was 
detained in the County Jail two months, during which time she received neither 
treatment for venereal disease, mental examination nor prenatal care. Upon 
her entrance into the jail, her throat and lungs were examined, but the jail had 
no record that she was pregnant or diseased or possibly sub-normal. A social 
worker from the State's Attorney's office, moreover, who presented those facts 
to the Grand Jury, was told that the Grand Jury could take no action in the 
matter and that nothing could be done until the time of trial. This girl was 
eventually sentenced to Joliet Penitentiary, without, however, any official 
recommendation, even at the time of her trial, that medical care should be 
supplied. 

Another girl of nineteen, a runaway from Lawndale Hospital, arrested as an 
inmate of a house of prostitution and held as a witness against its keeper and 
owner, was, after her escape from the Hospital, detained in the County Jail a 
month, pending action in the Morals Court. By Lawndale Hospital her con- 
dition was regarded as serious. At the time of her admission, the County Jail 
was notified of her contagious disease and a request made for treatment. No 
treatment was given. When her case was heard, upon continuance, the Court 
ordered her transferred once more to Lawndale Hospital. At the end of one 
more month, she was dismissed by both the Hospital and the Morals Court and 
allowed to leave the city with her father, who had come from a neighboring 
state to take her home. The possibilities of physical and moral contagion 
during that unnecessary month under jail conditions can hardly be over- 
estimated . 

According to jail records, as may be seen (Table B-16), 21 out of the 
478 women held in 1921, were reported as having venereal disease; in 1920, 53, 
out of 434; in 1919, 39 out of 540. In other words, in none of those years was 
venereal disease detected in more than 12.5 per cent of the woman jail popu- 
lation. Even before wartime measures for the control of venereal disease were 
instituted, and before Lawndale Hospital began to draw women afflicted with 
such disease from the population of local penal institutions, the percentage of 
diseased women reported in the County Jail was unbelievably low. In the pre- 
war year 1916, the County Jail Annual Report records no women with syphilis, 
a,nd only 12 out of 730, less than 2 per cent, with gonorrhea. In 1914, 26 out of 
626 or 4 per cent of the annual population were found to have venereal disease. 
The actual prevalence of those diseases is certainly much greater, as is shown 
by the records of the American Social Hygiene Association, the U. S. Inter- 
departmental Social Hygiene Board and other Socio-medical agencies. 

The latter Board, for instance, in its 1921 fiscal report, gives the results of a 
study, covering a two-year period of 15,010 women and girls in the United 
States, "whose conduct or circumstances brought them under the care of the 
Field Representatives" of that Board. A considerable proportion of them 
were definite offenders who had been arrested. Some were probation cases, 
and some so-called delinquents under semi-probation and supervision. Of 
the 6579 examined for syphilis, 2490, or about 38 per cent, were found 

1L>) 



"positive." Of the 7382 examined for gonorrhea, 3757, or 48 per cent, were 
found "positive." An additional 492 were infected with "venereal disease, 
type not reported," and 436 more were reported "doubtful or suspicious, "(a) 
So that the percentages 38 and 48 are probably somewhat understated. 

The American Social Hygiene Association has concluded that "from all 
available data, perhaps 60 to 75 per cent is a reasonable estimate for venereal 
infection among prostitutes of all classes. "(b) This percentage cannot, of course, 
be strictly applied to a jail population, for, it must be remembered, by no means 
all inmates have been concerned in prostitution. 

The findings of women's correctional institutions are of interest in this 
connection. Out of 136 prisoners examined in 1921 at the State Reformatory 
for Women at Framingham, Mass., 22.7 per cent were found to have syphilis and 
35.2 per cent gonorrhea. (c) A report from the Jefferson County Jail at Louis- 
ville, Ky.,(c) states that of 337 women examined during the period January, 
1921, to May 27, 1922, 71.5 per cent were pronounced "venereal." At the 
State Industrial Farm for Women, Lansing, Kansas, a medical study of 206 
delinquent women, made by the U. S. Public Health Service, revealed 31 
per cent syphilitic and 93.6 per cent infected with gonorrheal a) At Bedford, 
New York's well known state reformatory for women, among 100 women ex- 
amined for syphilis, 36 per cent were reported "positive." ( e ) 

Studies of women delinquents in the courts corroborate the foregoing sta- 
tistics to the prevalence of these diseases among woman offenders. In the 
Women's Misdemeanants' Division of the Philadelphia Municipal Court, of the 
824 women examined during the first six months of 1920, "55.2 per cent were 
found to be infected. "( f ) During the same period, 28 per cent of the 968 cases 
of women arraigned in the Morals Court of Chicago were sent to Lawndale 
Hospital for examination or treatment. ( r ) It is understood, however, that not 
all of these sent were found to be diseased. 

It is not the purpose of this report to arrive at an absolute percentage of 
women who are afflicted with venereal disease, for, as has been observed, 
"studies made of special groups, of differing ages and conditions at different 
times and places, differ greatly as to results, "(b) It is important to note, how- 
ever, that the percentages of venereally diseased women in the County Jail or 
in any detention home for women which might take its place would undoubtedly 
be greater than 12 per cent and that, without means of careful and complete 
detection and segregation, the opportunities for a spread of infection are great. 

From the presence of tuberculosis patients similar dangers arise. The 
prevalence of tuberculosis in the population has become generally familiar. 
Public opinion now demands its treatment in specially equipped institutions. 
Advanced cases of tuberculosis would probably be quickly detected and re- 



(a) Report of the U. S. Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1921. pp. 
172, 173. 

(b) "Prostitution in the United States," Howard B. Woolston, 1921, p. 54. 

(c) Information from correspondence (May 1922). 

(d) "Psychiatric Studies of Delinquents," TJ. S. Public Health Service. Reprint No. 59S. pp. 13. 15. 

(e) "A Study of Women Delinquents in New York State," by Mabel R. Fernald. Mary H. s. Hayes, and Almena 
Dawley, p. 409. 

(f) "A Study of Specialized Courts Dealing with Sex Delinquency," American Social Hygiene Assn., II., p. 78, 
I. p. 376. 

130 



I 






moved to a hospital. Cases in earlier stages require separation from close con- 
tact with others in a detention home, if their health is to be properly protected. 

Public opinion also supports the removal of the mentally deficient, some 
of whom are found in any considerable group of persons charged with crime. 
No such types of women are recorded in the annual reports of the County Jail 
available over the last eight years, with the exception of 1914 when two "mentally 
deficient" women are noted. Yet the striking incidence of mental incapacity 
or instability is brought out in every careful study of women offenders. The 
Massachusetts White Slave Commission reported that out of 300 sex offenders 
examined in institutions, less than 45 per cent were normal; 51 per cent were 
feeble-minded. ( a) At Bedford Reformatory after an examination of several 
hundred women and girls, it was found that, as "an extremely conservative 
estimate," 29.8 per cent were "decidedly mentally defective. "(b) Of the 740 
women mentally examined in the Woman's Misdemeanants' Division of the 
Philadelphia Municipal Court during the first half of 1920, only 60.4 per cent 
were found to be normal. (c) Mental examination of the women population of 
Illinois' penitentiary at Joliet, made in April, 1920 by the State Criminologist, 
revealed the fact that only eight out of the 35 women for whom a mental diagnosis 
was established tested normal. (a) 

Also, among women in detention, there are drug addicts or alcoholics, some 
of whom become violent or irresponsible and need special care. Where these 
types are present in sufficient number to justify it, special quarters in a deten- 
tion home must be set apart for them. A study of 647 girls and women at 
Bedford Hills in New York, found 17.3 percent addicted to the "excessive use 
of alcoholic drinks, drugs, and cigarettes, "(b) The tabulation of "Habits of 
Women" (Table B-17), copied from the Jailer's Annual Reports shows 
that similar problems arise also in this community among the patients with 
whom a detention home must deal. 

The health and habits of women offenders are significant as indications 
of the kind of treatment to be employed. During the period while those ac- 
cused must await trial, the medical service should involve thorough examina- 
tion with a view to the detection of disease for purposes of segregation and the 
treatment of minor ailments. For those so seriously ill as to require bedside 
care, hospital facilities should be afforded in the community outside. 



5. Nationality 



Ordinary classifications of nationality hold many possibilities of over- 
lapping and error, particularly those which have been maintained without 
modification through the changes resulting from the war. The nationality and 
nativity figures derived from the jailer's records or the reports of the Police 
Department fail to distinguish the newer nationalities. They do, however, 
make clear one important fact — the absolute necessity of interpreters in any 






(a) "Prostitution in the United States," Howard B. Woolston, Ph. D., 1921, p. 58. 

(b) "A Study of Prostitutes at Bedford," Katherine Bement Davis, pp. 190, 198, Chapter IX of "Commercial 
Prostitution in Isew York," George J. Kneciand. 

(c) "Misdemeanants' Division of the Philadelphia Municipal Court," p. 78, Report by American Social Hygiene 
Association, 1922. 

(d) Facts furnished (May, 1922) through the courtesy of Dr. Herman M. Adler, State Criminologist. 

131 



intelligent treatment and disposition of persons arrested. The large majority 
of women arrested in Chicago are, to be sure, American. In 1921, for instance, 
58 per cent were white American women (Table B-18). But there are 
others from countries whose manners, customs and tongues are unfamiliar in 
American circles, such as Chinese, Greeks, Swiss, Danes. Among those held in 
the County Jail, next to the English-speaking nationalities, there is seemingly 
the greatest need for interpreters for the Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, Bulgar- 
ian, and Italian, women (Table B-19). The need is very apparent to 
anyone who has observed the frantic, or the baffled, hunted expression of the 
foreign-speaking women in jail. An Italian woman, seen upon a recent visit to 
the County Jail, had been arrested the night before upon the complaint of a 
neighbor who charged assault and battery. A physical encounter had taken 
place in the kitchen of the accused woman's home — whither her neighbor had 
come to settle a matter of grocery credit on the one hand, and a loan of $6.00 
on the other. After the dispute, the Italian woman was taken into custody by 
the police, brought in the morning before the Police Court Judge, given a con- 
tinuance, and because she could not furnish $1000 bail, was promptly locked 
up in the County Jail. She had left at home four little children under six years 
of age, the youngest a nursing baby of six months. Her husband appealed to 
the District office of the United Charities, from which his family had been 
compelled to seek relief during times of unemployment. While the Infant 
Welfare Society prepared modified milk feedings for the baby, the United 
Charities procured a bondsman and legal assistance for the mother, and within 
a day had secured her release. When her case was heard in the Police Court, 
some two or three weeks later, the two women signed a peace bond, and the 
Italian family promptly moved out of the neighborhood. The case of this 
woman in its larger aspects illustrates the hardships which a rigid rule of crimi- 
nal procedure inflicts upon the ignorant, the poverty-stricken or the friendless. 
A complaint department of a probation service could undoubtedly have brought 
about a prompt and simple adjustment between two mild disturbers of the 
peace. In its immediate aspects, the opportunity to state her case at the place 
of detention when first arrested to one who understood her own language 
would probably have obviated the unfortunate commitment to jail. 

Discussion of the charges, many of them of an intricate nature, upon which 
women of all nationalities are arrested, need not here be reiterated. A study of 
charges related to nativity, however (Table B-20), adds one more point 
to the argument for careful and adequate preliminary investigations, of which 
the interpreter's function is an inseparable part. 

6. Color 

The fact of color has not manifested itself as a separate problem in the 
detention of women either in the County Jail or elsewhere in Chicago. About 
one-third of those who made up the annual women population in 1921, 1919 
and 1916, as may be seen from Table B-6, were colored women. The 
proportion was less in 1920, or about one-fifth, and in 1914, about one-fourth. 
Of the total number arrested in Chicago in 1921, only 19 per cent were colored. 
(Table B-18). White and colored women in the County Jail mingle dur- 
ing the hours spent outside of their cells in the "bull pens," with apparently no 

k;-2 






difficulties arising out of racial difference. In the general living conditions of a 
woman's detention home, outside of individual's rooms, Chicago has little 
son to suppose that a color line would be demanded. 

7. Education 

The jailer's records regarding the education of the women detained, show 
all the recent years for which records are available an overwhelming majority 
who had not advanced beyond the grammar grades. Six per cent of those held 
in the County Jail in 1921 had not reached the fifth grade. Eight per cent in 
that year, nine per cent in 1914, were illiterate (Table B-21). While it is, 
of course, expected that with improved judicial procedure, the period of deten- 
tion will become progressively shorter, and that any period of training would 
therefore not continue long, so low an educational equipment manifestly points 
to an obligation to extend to these women some form of elementary education. 
That a method of elementary education may be devised for temporary adult 
pupils was demonstrated during the war among the illiterate men found in the 
U. S. Army. 

8. Occupation 

Occupation is of primary significance in the case treatment of women 
offenders. During the period while the accused awaits trial, occupation is im- 
portant as a normalizing influence and as a beginning in rehabilitation. From 
the standpoint of economy, it is important, as well, in the internal administra- 
tion of a detention home. The largest group of women in the County Jail, as 
may be seen from Table B-22, are housewives. Domestics, waitresses and 
seamstresses come next. After "factory hands," in numerical frequency, come 
laundry workers, and after clerks, cooks. It would appear a practical measure to 
count upon the assistance of detained women for the ordinary household tasks. 
The development of suitable occupations, during the brief period of incarcera- 
tion, could quite simply be accomplished by a capable matron or superintendent. 






IV. PLANS FOR A CENTRAL DETENTION HOME 

1. Facilities and Equipment Needed 



This tide of women and girls who are gathered up for court decision as to 
their guilt or innocence requires a very careful observation and investigation 
if intelligent solutions of their individual problems are to be formulated. As a 
former Chief Probation Officer of Philadelphia points out: "Lawyers, social 
workers, policemen and citizens having contacts with the children's courts 
appreciate the value of municipal detention for children and the methods of 
treatment worked out in connection with the detention houses in the disposition 
of cases. Experience has proved that methods of treatment cannot be de- 
termined by chronological age alone. We should extend the methods developed 
in children's courts to apply to all ages, wiping out our arbitrary age line by 
improving the treatment of the older groups." (a) 



(a) Mrs. Jane Deeter Rippin. See "Municipal Detention for Women," Proceedings National Conference of 
Social WorK, 1918. 



133 



i 






Segregation 



Such treatment necessitates first of all adequate segregation for all the 
varied types and classes of women and girls seventeen years of age and over 
"held for trial, remanded for sentence, or detained as material witnesses." For, 
as Miss Maude Miner of the New York Probation and Protective Association, 
has noted, "At the same time we find, perhaps, a young girl from a good family 
who has stolen a pair of silk stockings from a department store," a seventeen- 
year girl "charged by her mother with incorrigibility, several older women of 
the street or from disorderly resorts indulging in vulgar conversation, and two 
or three drug addicts calling loudly for drugs. The girl who is not immoral and 
may be innocent of the offense with which she is charged, associates with 
women hardened by lives of vice. A witness who is not accused of any offense 
mingles with older criminals. "(a) 

The figures presented in the foregoing section have made clear the presence 
of these and other types in Chicago's own police stations and jail. Here we find 
the old and young, repeated and new offenders, girls and women charged with 
only the most petty offenses, prisoners of every nationality and color, of many 
occupations and interests, of many creeds; women and girls who are illiterate 
and others who are college graduates; some who are seriously diseased, drug 
addicts, alcoholics; others who are mentally subnormal or unstable; others who 
are witnesses, runaways, homeless, or "innocents" held for investigation only. 
For all these groups varying methods of treatment are necessary, and, for that 
reason, separate room and dormitory space in a Women's Detention Home. 

It is recommended that the second floor of the Women's Detention Home 
be devoted to segregation facilities for young women, first offenders, girls 
charged with minor offenses, and any "innocents," who cannot be provided 
with quarters in outside private institutions. The space upon this floor should 
be so divided and separated that individual segregation is easily possible, not 
only as to sleeping accomodations, but as to meals, occupations, and living 
room quarters as well. 

It is recommended that the same system of separate living arrangements be 
established upon the third floor, and that it be devoted to the care of the older, 
more serious and repeated offenders. 

The first floor should be preserved for office and court rooms alone, the 
need for which appears in the following pages. 

Morals Court 

A detailed consideration of the various branches of the Municipal Court 
in which women's cases are heard, would extend beyond the proper limits of a 
report upon detention. Moreover, there are in existence special studies of 
that branch of the court which chiefly deals with women's cases, the Morals 
Court. One of these studies, unpublished, was made in 1916 by Miss Maude 
Miner of New York, well known in the correctional field; another made in 1921 
by Miss Ruth Topping and Mr. George Worthington of the American Social 
Hygiene Association. (») So bound together, however, are the Morals Court 
and the Detention Home for Women in the matter of the proper disposition of 



(a) See Thirteenth Annual Report of the Association, 1921, p. 25. 

(b) Published in "Social Hygiene," Oct. 1021. Vol. VII, No. 4. 



134 



cases, that some mention must here be made of the methods of that court. In 
cases of such wide social significance as those brought into this specialized 
court, no judge can make wise decisions without the assistance of preliminary 
social investigations. There is at present no continuous, organized social 
service in the Morals Court. Many of the girls and women now discharged are 
thrust back into their old environments without any guidance, during a period 
which is full of difficulties and temptations. One of the first principles of a 
modern Detention Home is that it shall contain the facilities for social investi- 
gation, a fact which links it inseparably to the functions of the judge. 

Cases in the Morals Court are discharged in overwhelming numbers. Of a 
total of 4678 cases arraigned in that court in 1920, 3155 were discharged 
outright, 240 were discharged for want of prosecution; for eight, the 
disposition was nolle pros., and for 24, non-suit. In other words, a total of 3427 
cases, almost three-fourths of all cases heard in the Morals Court during 1920, 
were discharged without trial. ( a) Comparison with the records of previous years 
reveals, in the main, similar proportions, (a) There is enormous social and eco- 
nomic loss in such fruitless revolution of public machinery. It should be sub- 
jected to more thoughtful inspection and analysis. 

Among those who are eventually discharged are some hundreds afflicted 
or suspected of venereal disease who, upon court continuance or suspended sen- 
tence, have spent a period in Lawndale Hospital. In 1921, 802 cases, most of 
which were said to have been sent by the Morals Court, were cared for at 
Lawndale. (b) During the first half of 1920, the Hospital cared for 274 women, 
all except two of whom came from the Morals Court, (c) The weeks or months 
spent in this police-guarded hospital are akin to institutional commitment, and 
apparently constitute, in the mind of the judge, something of a substitute. It 
must be pointed out, however, that a court order to Lawndale occurs for the 
most part befoie conviction, is dependent not upon guilt, but upon disease. 
This "lock-hospital" can, therefore, never be regarded as a legitimate substi- 
tute for reformatory treatment. Before trial, the place for medical examina- 
tion is the Detention Home. After conviction, Ihe place for medical treatment, 
if the sentence is commitment, is the reformatory; if the patient is placed on 
piobation, opportunities for treatment are to be found in the clinics or hospitals 
which the outside community affords. 

Of those not discharged by the Morals Court, a few are placed on probation; 
a few are sent to the County Jail and House of Correction. But the vast ma- 
jority are fined. In 1920, omitting 16 held to the Criminal Court, for whom 
the Municipal Court report contains no final disposition, out of a total of 1235 
convicted, 13 were committed to the County Jail, 66 to the House of Correction. 
One hundred and sixty, or 13 per cent, were placed on probation; 996, or 81 per 
3ent,fined.(a) It cannot be too often said that short jail and Bridewell sentences 
contribute nothing whatever to the social treatment of the woman offender. 
It was this conviction that led to the success of the movement for a bond issue. 



(a) "Morals Court," pp. 148-152. Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Annual Reports of the Municipal Court 
>t Chicago, 1917-1920. 

(b) Information from the Hospital Supt. (March, 1922). 

(c) "The Morals Court of Chicago," "Social Hygiene," Oct., 1921, p. 376. 

135 



in 1915, providing for a Woman's House of Shelter to take the place of the cell- 
built Woman's Department of the House of Correction. In the same way was 
the Woman's Farm Colony enabling Act secured in 1919, providing in effect 
for a Woman's Reformatory. Unfortunately, nothing has resulted from this 
legislation. No location and no plans have been agreed upon for the House of 
Shelter. No appropriation has been made and no site selected for the State 
Farm Colony for Women. Until these two institutions become realities, every 
effort to deal successfully with the women and girls who are found to have 
violated the law, must prove abortive. 

The above given figures indicate that the Morals Court makes compara- 
tively little use of the Adult Probation Department. That Department is, to 
be sure, under-manned, and yet, day after day, when its representatives sit 
in attendance in the Court, neither is their presence recognized nor their as- 
sistance requested. They are only occasionally called upon to make prelim- 
inary investigations or to receive cases on formal probation. The official re-i 
port of the City Council Committee on Crime made the following carefully con- 
sidered recommendations as to adult probation : 

"That the adult probation law be so amended as to make it obligatory 
upon the Court to (a) secure from probation officers a written report on a com- 
plete investigation of each applicant for piobation, couching tht question of 
previous convictions, arrests, habits of life, and family history; (b) Secure from 
the Psychopathic Laboratory a complete written report on his mental and 
physical condition; (c) file these reports with other proceedings in each case; 
(d) to make these reports decisive in determining the question of probation 
within the limits of the law; (e) forbid probation in cases of feeble-mindedness, 
insanity, dangerous infections, and such unstable conditions as render the 
applicant, in the judgment of experts, unable to adjust himself to normal con- 
ditions; (f) commit all such persons, on the recommendation of the probation 
officers and the Psychopathic Laboratory, to a farm colony or hospital until 
cured; (g) amend the law by removing the upper limit to the number of pro- 
bation officers; (h) make only murderers and traitors exempt from probation; 
(i) create a non-partisan State Probation Commission with authority to fix 
the qualifications of probation officers, both adult and juvenile, and to prepare 
a certified list from which the court shall make appointments. ' ' ( a) Those recom- 
mendations were of far-reaching importance. Yet the community has allowed 
seven years to elapse without effective action. 

Reference has been made to the fact that the usual method of dispos 
ing of convicted women in the Morals Court is to impose fines upon them. This 
is, by common consent, the worst possible way of disposing of cases of this 
character. Its relation to the perpetuation of vice and the degradation of the 
women who must pay this tax has been pointed out by many competent ob- 
servers. "As a means of dealing with offenders, whether patrons, prostitutes, 
or exploiters, fines are useless," writes Miss Miner. "They do not punish; 
they do not deter; they do not help. . . They are so small that they 
do not result in effectively reducing profits of keepers and traffickers. Small 
fines are laughed at by girls who in a single night on the streets can make many 
times the amount of the fine. Large fines serve only to enslave a woman 



- 



(a) Published 1915. See "Ceneral Sunimniy (if Recommendations," p. 151. 

136 



more, causing her to mortgage herself to pay for them, or encouraging associa- 
tion with a parasite dependent on her. If a woman goes to prison because of fail- 
ure to pay a large fine, she is really imprisoned for debt. Since fines merely 
encourage offenders to continue illegal traffic, they practically license prosti- 
tution. We convict men and send them to prison for living on the earnings 
of prostitution, yet continue to receive into our city treasuries money which is 
the proceeds of prostitution. Our awakening conscience should no longer 
tolerate this. The fining system is a license system and should be abolished." ( a) 
New York abolished fines for women convicted of similar offenses years ago. 
In 1911, the Vice Commission of Chicago recommended that "in dealing with 
prostitutes in the courts, fines should be abolished and imprisonment or an 
adult probation system substituted, "(b) More than ten years have elapsed 
since that report was issued and yet the laws and ordinances which its ac- 
ceptance involves have never been framed. It is respectfully submitted that 
cases of this character shall hereafter be heard and disposed of in a separate 
branch of the Municipal Court to be known as the Woman's Court. 

Woman's Court 

Until the cases of women and girls are withdrawn from the docket of the 
present Morals Court and, like the cases of children, are heard under auspices 
equipped to learn the truth and intent upon rehabilitation, the significance of 
the court sentences will not be thoroughly scrutinized nor fully understood. 
When all matters which pertain to the arrest, detention and trial of women 
offenders are thus centralized, interested women's groups will be able tocollect, 
study and disseminate telling evidence that the present disposition of woman's 
cases does not solve the problem that they present. They will be able to con- 
vince the public that newer methods are available and to push to consummation 
the following essential reforms in the present ineffectual procedure: 

1. Abolition of fines for sex offenders. 

2. The revision and improvement of the Adult Probation Law. 

3. The building of the long delayed City House of Shelter. 

4. The appropriation for the legally authorized State Farm Colony for 
Women. 

There are added reasons for creation of a Woman's Court. Cases in the Morals 
Court are heard in an atmosphere which too often seems to accept the con- 
ditions it uncovers and which most certainly lures many of the morbidly curious. 
The Court Room in the City Hall and the corridors leading to it are crowded 
with witnesses, lawyers, bondsmen, spectators and loiterers. There is usually 
no attendant on guard at the door or even at the rail, to determine whether or 
not they have actual business in the Court. It is now a well-known fact that 
open solicitation and date-making is carried on in and about the Morals Court 
itself. Commotion and disorder are, under some judges, a usual condition of 
affairs. A court which presides over the destinies of girls and young women, 
which must hear recounted their history and habits, their mistakes and their 
most intimate experiences, should demand quiet and dignity and some measure 



(a) "Slavery of Prostitution," Maude Miner, 1916, p. 152. 

(b) "The Social Evil in Chicago," a Study of Existing Conditions with Recommendations by the Vice Com- 
mission of Chicago, 1911, p. 57. 

137 



of privacy. The place for such a court is within the Detention Home for Women. 
Because then, the combination of court and detention in cases of women 
would : 

1. Bring inseparably together the judge's function and the facilities for 
identification, examination and social investigation, 

2. Focus the attention of the community upon the neglected field of care 
for women offenders, 

3. Keep sharply before the public the handicaps toward rehabilitation, 

4. Furnish opportunity for the quiet, intimate hearing of cases, upon 
which the successful judicial treatment of women and girls must be based, 
it is earnestly recommended that a central Detention Home for Women 
should contain court rooms with adjacent judge's chambers, "for a Woman's 
Branch of the Municipal Court, with which the present Morals Court should be 
incorporated. "( a) 

It is believed that two court rooms would prove adequate for the hearing 
of all women's cases brought before the Municipal Court in a day. No ac- 
curate figures are available showing either the daily or the annual Municipal 
Court docket of women's cases in Chicago. It will be remembered that 10,555 
women were arrested in 1921, a rough daily average of 29, most of whose cases 
under the present system were heard in Municipal Court. It will also be re- 
membered from the arrest frequency table, that on a considerable number of 
days in the year the women arrested aggregated 40 or over. Under an ideally 
prompt judicial procedure, cases are heard on the day of the arrest. As a 
matter of fact, the number of daily Municipal Court hearings is not a constant 
figure. On mornings after "raids," the numbers run high, as is also the ten- 
dency on Monday mornings. On other days, the women's cases do not occupy 
even half a day, so that courts may adjourn before noon. On two fairly typical 
days in May, in the Morals Court, where most arrested women appear, the 
number of women's cases heard, including "old" and "new," was 50 and 41. It 
is safe to say that while on many days of the year two court rooms would not 
be needed for the entire day, on many others they would be taxed to their full 
capacity. 

It is recommended that these court rooms be small in size, that they ac- 
comodate only those persons directly concerned in the particular case at issue, 
and that separate waiting rooms be provided for others expecting later hearings. 
The separate Municipal Courts for women, established in New York City 
and Philadelphia, have demonstrated the feasibility of such branches, and 
have pointed a way out of the above-outlined difficulties and undesirable prac- 
tices which have gathered about the Morals Court of Chicago. 

Channels are already available in this community for an individual case 
work treatment of women offenders. 

Policewomen 

It is recommended that the policewomen now assigned to regular station 
work be withdrawn from ordinary patrol duty and assigned to a headquarters 
at the Central Detention Home for Women. Policewomen were fiist intro- 



(a) See "What Should Bo Done for Chicago's Women Offenders," the Report of the Committee on renal and 
Correctional Institutions, 1917, p. 8. 

13S 




A 

C 



ft 
*H 

9 






duced into the Chicago Police Department in 1913. The original number of ten 
grew to twenty-nine in 1915. At present, it is thirty. The opening of a Central 
Detention Home for Women would give them hitherto unafforded oppor- 
tunities. They would, of course, be expected to "cover" such territory as parks, 
bathing beaches, places of commercialized amusement, certain railroad and 
elevated stations, and certain street corners and city blocks, some of which 
have already come within the compass of intermittent assignments. They 
would, however, have a larger and more dignified share in the preparation of 
cases for court, and in the social investigation upon which wise disposition 
must be based. Under a woman Detention Home Superintendent, moreover, of 
Captain's rank, of the qualifications hereafter outlined, that esprit de corps 
could be developed which is so vital in the effective administration of any 
social service. The policewoman's function, under unit organization, could be 
centered as has never before been possible, not primarily in the detection of 
violations of law, but in the protection and social treatment of women and 
children, whether offenders or "innocents." 

Finger Printing 

As an aid in investigation and case treatment, a branch of the Police 
Department Bureau of Identification should be established in the Women's 
Detention Home, and a complete finger-printing system installed. Such a 
recommendation in the cases of women charged with sex offenses has been 
before the people of this community since the report of the Vice Commission 
of Chicago, in 1911. The habit of using aliases and the question of recidivism 
could be at least partially checked by means of this method of positive identi- 
fication. Such a system is successfully at work in New York City and Phila- 
delphia. 

Probation Officers 

It is strongly recommended that there be assigned to the Women's Deten- 
tion Home, from the Adult Probation Department, women probation officers 
numbering at least six, under the general supervision of one of their number to 
be designated by the Adult Chief Probation Officer. With a centralization of 
their work about the Woman's Court, a more adequate basis for probation 
work with the older girl and the young offender might be developed. 

State and City Attorneys 
Space in the Woman's Detention Home must obviously be provided for 
the State and City Attorneys who appear at court hearings. One or two rooms 
near the court on the first floor would undoubtedly suffice. 

Psychopathic Laboratory 
It is recommended that a laboratory for psychopathic and psychiatric 
examinations be established in the Woman's Detention Home, through the 
obvious channel of the State Criminologist, working in cooperation with the 
Psychopathic Hospital. This office maintains a flexibility of organization which 
makes the opening of branches comparatively simple. 

Medical Clinic 
The problem of medical care in the Detention Home has been made clear 
in the foregoing section on the physical condition of persons detained. Preg- 

140 



nancy, tuberculosis, heart disease, syphilis, gonorrhea, diseased tonsils and 
adenoids, malnutrition and many other physical factors in wrongdoing must 
be detected, if the causes of individual crime are to be discovered and removed. 
The point at which possible offenders are apprehended presents the community's 
opportunity to correct those ills, not by forcible examination, be it said, but 
through the cooperation of the individual girl in plans upon which her future 
welfare depends. A Detention Home for Women must therefore contain clinical 
facilities where diagnoses may be made. It is quite within the province of Cook 
County Hospital, perhaps in cooperation with the County Physician and City 
Health Department, to establish in the Detention Home recommended, a dis- 
pensary and attending staff of physicians and nurses. The administration of 
that admirable County institution warrants public confidence in a Woman's 
Detention Home branch. 

Educational Facilities 

The Chicago Board of Education represents a source through which 
educational features might easily be established in a Detention House for 
women. By way of precedent, it may be recalled that this body has for years 
maintained classes of instruction at the Juvenile Detention Home and, in the 
past, has likewise conducted a school for the boys at the County Jail. For 
the illiterates among those who would be brought to the Woman's Detention 
Home, instruction in the elementary branches is needed. And for all who 
come, as much instruction as possible in typewriting, stenography, accounting 
and other clerical occupations, in domestic science, sewing, dressmaking, 
millinery, and other handicrafts, should be organized. There are several sewing 
machines now in the Women's Quarters of the County Jail which afford the 
beginning of such an equipment. Whatever house garments are needed, such 
as night clothes, kitchen aprons, etc., could be made in these classes. It is 
strongly recommended that these educational facilities be instituted through 
the Board of Education, as soon as the Home is opened. 

It is recommended also that circulation of books from the Chicago Public 
Library be arranged, and, if possible, a "library hour" when the reading of 
good books would be stimulated. 

Recreation 

Obvious channels are also available for the establishment of recreational 
features in a Woman's Detention Home. The Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds 
and Bathing Beaches of the City Department of Public Works maintains a 
staff of young women playground directors trained in recreational activities. 
The girls held in jail need exercise, games, dancing and gymnastics, indoors 
and out. At present, vacant lots on the east adjoin the proposed location 
for a Woman's Detention Home, where outdoor exercise could easily be de- 
veloped. A piano now in the Woman's Quarters of the County Jail affords 
the opening possibility for indoor recreation. Assistance in the maintenance of 
recreational work might also be secured from the West Park Board of Com- 
missioners, in whose territory that location lies. 

Volunteer play leaders would undoubtedly be furnished by the Recreation 
Training School, if a request were presented to its Director. 

It is recommended that the problem of supervised recreation in this De- 



. 



141 




\ 



1.1 






- a 

s s 



tention Home be placed in the hands of Chicago's Women's Clubs, and that a 
joint Woman's Recreation Advisory Committee be appointed, to function 
perpetually. 

Kitchen and Dining Rooms 

One kitchen could undoubtedly serve the entire building occupied by 
women held for trial. In it, certain groups of those detained would be occupied, 
supervised by the cook and her assistants. Discretion should be exercised in the 
mingling of those girls and women at work in the kitchen. A kitchen in a 
Home of this size needs complete modern equipment. It should serve as a 
place of instruction in diet, nutrition and the preparation of foods. Elsewhere 
in the County Jail Study, appear the recommendations of physicians and dieti- 
tians as to what this food should be. The mistakes and even crimes of the 
wrongdoer may frequently be traced to lack of proper food. 

Each floor of the Detention Home needs two or more dining rooms of its 
own, where some segregation may be preserved, and where the various classes 
of women and girls may assist in the service of food, may sit decently at meals, 
and engage in normal conversation. A print of this picture was finally im- 
possible to secure. 

Laundry and Sterilizer 

Manifestly, some facilities for the washing and sterilization of detention 
home clothing, bedding, etc., must be provided. Estimates for the installation 
of a laundry equipment sufficient for the Woman's Detention Home population 
approximate $5000, and include, in the terms of a laundry manufacturer, two 
globe washers, an extractor, a junior tumbler, a group drier, and an ironer. 
The cost of a sterilizer is estimated at from $3000 to $5000. 

Suggestions have been made that the new laundry equipment at the Cook 
County Hospital and at the Children's Contagious Disease Hospital are not 
used to capacity limit, and that arrangements might be made either for part 
purchase or for contract work. These suggestions will bear investigation before 
complete laundry equipment is purchased for a Woman's Detention Home. 
In the laundry, the assistance of groups of detained girls and women should be 
used, and some instruction given in the proper cleaning and care of clothes. 
That activity affords one of the occupations which must supplant the rotting 
idleness of most places of detention. "Idleness," as Dr. Charles R. Henderson 
and others have pointed out, "is injurious to health and morals of the prisoner 
and burdens the public. Prisoners awaiting trial should have an opportunity 
of working for wages; and if convicted persons must, for a time, be kept in 
jail, they should be compelled to work at some useful and productive in- 
dustry.'^ a) 

Building Available 

Fortunately there is in this community a suitable public building, soon 
to be available for the kind of Woman's Detention Home proposed. That is 
the institution now occupied by children awaiting hearings in the Juvenile 



(a) Report of Special Committee on Jails, Charles R. Henderson, Chicago, 1907. Printed in American Frison 
Association Semi-Centennial lamphlet, 1920, p. 30. 

143 



Court. It is a three-story brick building, located at 771 Gilpin Place, built in 
1907, and in good repair. Its total capacity is regarded as 165. Seventy-two 
children are cared for on the second floor, 58 on the third, a total capacity 
on the two floors of 130. When the new Juvenile Detention Home, at Roose- 
velt Road and Ogden Avenue, is opened in the fall, the present Home will 
be vacated. With some interior alterations, the present quarters afford very 
satisfactory possibilities for the detention of older girls and women await- 
ing trial. The capacity is ample. The location is central and conveniently 
reached. More women are arrested in or near the loop than in outlying dis- 
tricts. The large majority are at some time transported to the downtown 
section for hearing in the Morals Court. There is no reason, therefore, why 
they should not be conveyed at once to the place where detention and court 
are centralized. 

2. Administrative Personnel 

Superintendent 

An institution of the size and importance of a central Detention Home 
for Women requires a woman superintendent of refinement, maturity, judg- 
ment, resourcefulness, executive ability, and human understanding, one trained 
in, and thoroughly familiar with the functions and use of social agencies and 
with the jurisdiction and procedure of the Courts. Her ultimate responsibility 
would be greater than that of a district Police Captain and her rank should be 
at least commensurate. Under her direction, policewomen should be assigned 
to duty. In her hands might very well be placed the correlation of the investi- 
gational work of police women with the later supervision of women offenders 
by adult women probation officers. This position should be filled through a 
competitive civil service examination and be safeguarded by the careful appli- 
cation of the merit system. 

Assistant Superintendent 

An Assistant Superintendent should be chosen in the same way, and hold 
her position on the same basis. Her qualifications should be as nearly like those 
of the ideal superintendent as possible. In addition, she should be a skilled 
housekeeper. She should be held responsible for the conduct of the institution 
at all times when the superintendent is off duty. Her rank should be at least 
commensurate with that of Police Lieutenant. 

Matrons 

A staff of fifteen matrons, five on each of three eight-hour shifts, would 
undoubtedly prove adequate. It would be expected that three at a time, one in 
each wing and one in the rear, would be assigned to the second floor; and two, 
one in each wing, to the third floor. In addition to their housekeeping duties, 
in which they would supervise the work of the girls and women detained, the 
afternoon hours would afford opportunity for clerical work upon the records of 
the institution. It is of the utmost importance that among the staff members 
of the Detention Home, there be women, matrons, if possible, who are able 
to interpret the languages of foreign-speaking peoples, particularly Polish, 
Russian, Italian, German, former residents of Lithuania, Czecho-Slovakia and 
Jugo-Slavia. These fifteen Detention Home matrons should be of at least 

145 



the rank of the chief matron at the County Jail and should be chosen by Civil 
Service. 

Receiving Clerks 
Three receiving clerks, one of each of three shifts, would be needed at the 
Detention Home entrance desk. The night receiving clerk could undoubtedly, 
in addition to other duties, operate the telephone. Their rank should 
be at least equal to that of the present city police matrons, and their tenure of 
office subject to Civil Service rules. 

Other Assistants 

The Detention Home staff should include, in addition to some other 
clerical assistants and telephone operators, a chief cook responsible for buying 
food, preparing menus, etc., two assistant cooks who could supervise the work 
of detained women and girls, nurses, a supervisor of the laundry, janitor or 
engineer, scrub woman and watchman. All positions should be filled and pro- 
tected by Civil Service. 

An estimate of the administrative costs involved in this staff follows. It is 
of importance to note a possible saving of thousands of dollars in salary cost to 
the City and County, through the substitution of a centralized system of deten- 
tion for women for the present scattering, uncorrelated facilities. 

SALARIES 

Recommended for Detention Paid at Present Detention Quarters 

Home for Women 
Supt. (With rank of Police Capt.) . . $ 3,500.00 
Asst. Supt. (rank of Police Lieut.) . . 2,700.00 

City-County City 

15 Matrons (rank of Chief Matron 32 Matrons at $1,404.00 $44,928.00 

Co. Jail 5 on each shift) $23,760.00 1 Matron 1,284.00 

3 Receiving Clerks (rank of city 1 Matron 1,224.00 

matron, 1 on each shift) . 4,212.00 

*$47,436.00 

County 

1 Head Matron Co. Jail at $132.00 

per month $ 1,584.00 

4 Matrons— Jail at $113.00 per 

month 5,424.00 

$ 7,008.00 

$34,172.00 39 Matrons **$54,444.00 

In addition to the above there will also be required: 

Additional Clerks and Telephone Operators 

1 Cook 

2 Assistant Cooks 
1 , 2 or 3 Nurses 

1 Laundry Supervisor 

2 Scrubwomen 
Janitor 
Engineer 
Fireman 

Watchman and door attendants. 
* Information from City Budget, p. 1909, Council Proceedings, Feburary 10. 1922. 
** Information from Cook County Appropriation Bill, p 69. 

V. REASONS FOR A SEPARATE DETENTION 
HOUSE FOR WOMEN 

The establishment of detention homes for women, • separated from those 

i-h; 



for men, is neither a new idea nor a new procedure. Wartime lent the most 
recent impetus to the movement for women's detention homes, and marked it 
by the opening of such institutions in more than twenty towns and cities of 
the United States. The precedent of two of the large cities is important in 
the consideration of Chicago's problem of detention. 

Long before the war, in fact for the last ten years, New York City ha& 
been working toward the construction of a House of Detention for Women, 
"planned," in the words of Miss Maud Miner, "according to the most modern 
ideas, with ample room for proper classification and also housing a court for 
women." The plans for this new correction center in New York City have 
already been prepared, and an appropriation partially assured. 

In 1917, Philadelphia opened a House of Detention for Girls and Women, 
under the jurisdiction of the Misdemeanants Division of the Municipal Court 
of that city. For the last five years, this home has presented a notable example 
of the kind of treatment needed among the girls and women who are held to 
await court action. 

Chicago itself has had, since 1916, an official recommendation for a Central 
Detention House for Women, a recommendation advanced by the Committee on 
Penal and Correctional Institutions of the joint City-County Crime Com- 
mission. There are very convincing reasons for the opening of such an institu- 
tion in Chicago: 

1. It is in line with progressive methods for the treatment of women 
offenders already adopted in other American cities; 

2. The number of men arrested is now more than ten times the number 
of women, (a) "The number of women is therefore numerically so unimportant 
that proper consideration will not be given their needs until they are separated 
from the men;"(n) 

3. The development of household occupations for detained women, one 
of the most important steps in social treatment, requires a freedom of move- 
ment not possible in an institution in which men are also held; 

4. "A house of Detention with provision for segregation of the different 
classes of women is necessary in order to prevent moral and physical contami- 
nation.'^ c) The immoral practices which have occurred in the jails of this, as 
well as other states, and the opportunities in a mixed jail population for "ap- 
pointments" effective after jail release, are now matters of common knowledge; 

5. Relief from the critical overcrowding at the Cook County Jail is im- 
perative. The removal of the "County Jail women" to other quarters would 
release 36 cells, as well as additional interior space, for other uses. 






VI. REASONS FOR COMBINING THE WOMEN'S DETEN- 
TION FACILITIES OF CITY AND COUNTY 

The advantages of one Central Detention House for Women, as against 
the scattered provision for their care at outlying points in the City and County, 
are great: 



(a) Annual Report Police Dept. of Chicago, 1920, p. 6. 

hi i.,ii i 

. Annual Report, 1921, p. 25. 



(b) Report Committee on Penal and Correctional Institutions, p. 6. 

(c) New York Probation and Protective Association, Thirteenth A 



147 




1 

I 

c 
S 
s 



1. In the words of the Committee on Penal and Correctional Institutions, 
above quoted, "All the women who are arrested must be brought to one central 
station if proper care is to be given the young girls who are first offenders and 
if the probation system for these girls is to be properly worked out. It is obvi- 
ous, also, that social service may be more intelligently given these girls if they 
are brought to one station instead of being kept in different parts of the city." 

2. The question of proper detention for women charged with crime in 
this community represents not two problems, but one. For at this point in 
their treatment there is a wasteful duplication of function by the City and 
County. Cases of women held in the County Jail and in the Police Stations 
are not so different, either in character or jurisdiction, that they could not be 
held in the same institution. In fact, the charges may be identical, the indi- 
viduals may be identical, and the jurisdiction identical. There are many per- 
sons in the County Jail who are "City prisoners," still awaiting action in the 
Municipal Court. 

3. There are unnecessary overhead expenses involved in the upkeep of 
more than one place of detention for women. The argument of the Committee 
on Penal and Correctional Institutions that "the number of women arrested 
is not large enough to warrant adequate provision for the proper segregation 
of the different grades of women offenders in three stations," is even more true 
if, in addition to the County Jail, the police stations at which women are held 
number, as they have in the past ten years, not only three, but five, and ten and 
even fourteen. Statistics on the foregoing pages demonstrate that one Central 
Detention House could easily care for all women awaiting trial in Chicago and 
Cook County. 

4. There are existent in this community, at the present time, adequate 
precedents for the cooperation of City and County in their various functions. 
They have consolidated their administrative offices, for instance, in one City- 
County Building. 

Almost fifteen years ago, the City and the County recognized their joint 
responsibility for the care of children pending Juvenile Court hearing, and 
undertook the establishment of a single institution for that purpose. Though 
the Juvenile Detention Home is generally regarded as a County institution, 
the City "is supposed to pay half of its maintenance. "( a) 

The Chicago and Cook County School for Boys near Riverside, 111., is 
another joint venture of these two governing bodies. It was built by the City 
of Chicago and is maintained under a two-party arrangement between Cook 
County and the Chicago Board of Education. 

The City Bridewell houses certain classes of prisoners, whose food and 
other expenses are defrayed by the County. 

The Adult Probation Department, which functions both in the Munici- 
pal and higher courts, is supported by both City and County. The salary of 
the Chief Adult Probation Officer is adjusted approximately on a half-and-half 
basis. The salaries of fourteen adult probation officers are paid by Cook 
County; the salaries of sixteen on the same staff by the City of Chicago. 

It is apparent, therefore, that there is a tendency toward consolidation of 
certain functions of the City and County, and that it is particularly marked 



(a) Statement (May 1922) of Chief Clerk in off ce of City Comptroller. 

149 



in the correctional field. The combination of the two bodies in the care of 
women pending trial is in harmony with similar progressive public measures 
and should be consumated in this community without delay. 

In the separation, then, of detention quarters for men and women, in 
the combination of Cook County and Chicago in their care, in the establishment 
of a Woman's Branch of the Municipal Court in the Woman's Detention 
Home, in the building of institutions making possible more satisfactory court 
dispositions, and in the equipment of the Detention Home with adequate 
facilities — in these five steps lies the solution for the confusing problem of the 
care of women pending trial in this community and an immediate program 
for the Women's Clubs who have manifested so keen an interest in the treatment 
of women offenders. 
June, 1922 Adena Miller Rich 



: i 






Report on Relief of Overcrowding in 
The County Jail 

By 

John L. Whitman 



To the Chicago Community Trust: 

Having become associated in an advisory capacity with Dr. George W. 
Kirchwey, Director of the Cook County Jail Survey, and having been requested 
by him to study the problem of relieving the overcrowded condition that now 
prevails in the jail, I respectfully submit the following statement: 

My acquaintance with the county jail and its problem goes back twenty- 
two years to the time when, in 1890, I was appointed to a subordinate position 
in the institution. My term of service, first as guard and subsequently as chief 
clerk, lasted until 1895, when I became Jailer, a position which I held for twelve 
years more. My experience, therefore, covered the previous period of over- 
crowding, similar to that from which the jail is now. suffering, the relief of that 
situation by the erection of the addition, now known as the "new jail," in 1894, 
and the gradual filling up of the latter to its full capacity. My subsequent 
experience as Superintendent of the House of Correction for ten years (from 
1907 to 1917) kept me in touch with the new conditions of overcrowding which, 
by the end of that period, had already become a matter of very serious concern. 
These conditions have now reached a point where, by common consent, some 
immediate measures of relief must again be taken. 

As I understand the situation, the present Jail Survey was undertaken 
with the view of working out a plan for a new jail with adequate room for all 
who may be committed to it for some years to come. This is of the utmost 
importance, as the construction of the present jail is such that, even if it had 
no more inmates than it was intended to hold, it is quite unsuitable to furnish 
healthful or even decent living conditions or to permit the needed classification 
and segregation of the inmates which make up its population. 

But it seems to me that we are not justified in holding the present popula- 
tion under present conditions in the jail while waiting for the new jail to be 
authorized, built and equipped to receive inmates. Such a project always takes 
time, several years at least, and in the meantime the present conditions of 
shameful and dangerous overcrowding would continue. No one who has not 
lived in close contact with the inmates of a jail and become familiar with the 
lowered moral tone and impaired vitality which result from jail life can appre- 
ate the dangers which lurk in this indiscriminate herding of men together; 
not only the dangers of physical infection and of moral contamination but the 
danger that the nervous tension and irritability spreading through the mass will 
break out in riot or some other form of action. This is undoubtedly the main 
cause of the outbreak which occurred in the jail a few weeks ago. Such a situa- 
tion should not be allowed to continue. For this reason I would strongly recom- 
mend that immediate steps be taken to reduce the population in the present 
jail by transferring a considerable number of its inmates to another secure place 
of detention. 

This raises two questions which I have attempted to answer: First, what 

151 



part of the jail population can and should be removed? And, second, what 
temporary place of detention can be found for them? 

I have no hesitation in saying that the boys and, perhaps, other young 
first offenders should be taken out of the jail and put elsewhere. I should favor 
this even if it were not necessary to relieve the congestion in the present jail. 
A jail is no place for most of these young people. There are many tough char- 
acters in the jail, professional Or, at least, habitual criminals and others who are 
hardened in vice if not in crime. The boys and young people to whom I have 
referred are not of this kind. They don't belong with them and should not be 
in the same institution with them. . 

Most people would be surprised to know how many boys of this descrip- 
tion there are in the jail, probably as much as one-third of the total population. 
From this number a couple of hundred could easily be picked (leaving the wilder 
and more reckless behind) who could safely be confined under less severe and 
restricted conditions in another place. 

As to the place, it seems to me that the old John Worthy School building, 
situated on the Workhouse grounds and within the Workhouse wall, which has 
for some years been out of use, is well adapted to the purpose of a temporary 
detention place for the class of inmates above described. It was formerly used 
as a reformatory for some 400 juvenile delinquents, who were housed in a cell- 
block within the building prior to the opening of the Chicago and Cook County 
School for Boys near Riverside. This cell-block has been removed and the 
space formerly occupied by it is suitable for dormitories accomodating about 
200. There is also abundant room in the building for a kitchen, mess-hall, 
hospital, school-room, exercise room and other facilities. The structure has 
been allowed to fall out of repair but could be put into condition for use at a 
comparatively small expense. It has the further advantage of having an 
exercise yard or playground lying between the west side of the building and 
the Workhouse wall. The location of the School at South California Boulevard 
and Twenty-sixth Street, with several carlines affording access to it and with 
modern methods of transportation, presents no serious problem to those desiring 
to visit the inmates or of transferring the prisoners when wanted in the Criminal 
Court Building. 

From my knowledge of prisoners of the class whom it is thus proposed to 
transfer to the John Worthy School, I am satisfied that the plan involves no 
danger of disturbance or of escape; though, it is obvious that in a place of this 
kind, a different type of administration will be required from that which pre- 
vails in a place of rigid, cellular confinement like the jail proper. The greater 
freedom that the inmates of the John Worthy School will, of necessity, enjoy 
will, I am convinced, involve no danger of insubordination or other miscon- 
duct if the officer chosen to superintend the institution is of a type capable 
of adapting himself to the new conditions of detention. There are a number of 
capable officers of this kind in the jail at present who could be depended on to 
make a good job of it. Strict supervision will, of course, be required and this 
will be strongly reinforced by the ever-present fear of being returned for mis- 
conduct to the hated cells of the jail. On the other hand, the place is reason- 
ably well adapted to afford a more constructive and healthful treatment of the 
younger type of offender, with provision for education, medical care and out- 
door recreation and, most important of all, the development of a morale which 

152 



will go far to neutralize the demoralizing effects of confinement on a criminal 
charge. 

In pursuance of the plan above outlined, I made several visits to the John 
Worthy School and secured the expert services of Mr. Ralph Zimmerman, of 
the well-known firm of Saxe & Zimmerman, architects of the new prison at 
Joliet, and of Mr. Collison, estimator of the George A. Fuller Company, to 
study the needs of the building in the way of repairs and alterations required 
to adapt it to the proposed use and to make estimates of the cost. 

The attached floor-plan, which provides for one large and eight small 
dormitories and 39 individual rooms, shows an initial provision of 188 beds. 
This can be increased to 235 by setting the beds in the dormitories a little closer 
together or, to a still larger number, by utilizing additional space for sleeping 
quarters, if that should be deemed necessary. 

There is also attached an itemized statement prepared by Mr. Collison 
of the repairs and new construction deemed necessary or desirable, with the 
estimated cost of each item. 

No attempt has been made to estimate accurately the cost of the furnish- 
ings and equipment of the kitchen, mess-hall, hospital, school-room, dormi- 
tories, etc., as this will depend on several factors not yet determined, such as 
the number of inmates that may be confined in the School and the probable 
' period of the use of the building for this purpose. Roughly estimated, it may 
be said that, assuming a population of 200 to 250, the cost of such equipment 
will fall between a minimum of $5000, and a maximum of $10,000. It should be 
noted, however, that this expenditure will fall into the category of a perma- 
nent investment, as the equipment provided for the John Worthy School will, 
for the most part, be equally available for use in the quarters to be provided for 
this class of prisoners in connection with the new jail. 

The plan here proposed will also involve some additional overhead expenses. 
The School will be, in effect, an annex to the jail and will be under the jurisdic- 

^tion of the Jailer, but it will be necessary to place a deputy in charge with such 
clerical staff and other assistants as may be required. 
In conclusion permit me to say that the plan above set forth is recom- 
mended only as a temporary device for effecting an immediate reduction of the 
jail population, pending the construction and opening of the new jail. It does 
not pretend to solve either the jail problem as a whole nor the problem of the 
custody of the boys and other young first offenders who are detained on charges 
of crime. With all its advantages over the present jail, the John Worthy 
School is only a poor, temporary substitute for the detention quarters that 
should be provided and the project of a new jail should be pushed with energy 
until it becomes an accomplished fact. 

Respectfully submitted, 

John L. Whitman, 

June 26, 1922, State Superintendent of Prisons. 



153 



Jail Records and Reports 

1, The Present System 
(a) Records 

Jail Register. All prisoners enter the jail through the receiving wing in 
the "old jail." (i) Here the deputy sheriff or the police officer turns over to a 
clerk, the prisoner and his commitment papers. These papers are taken at 
frequent intervals during the day to the Record Office in the "new jail" where 
they are listed on a daily sheet which becomes the record of the day's "intake." 
From this daily sheet the items are posted into the big Jail Register; the com- 
mitment papers being then filed in the vault by date. (2) 

The Jail Register is a large solidly-bound, alphabetically-indexed record 
book, made large enough to last six months; a transcript being made into 
a new book on June and December first of each year. Fourteen prisoners are 
listed to a page ; the name at the left and the following items opposite the name 
on the right: Cell No., record (meaning "case continued," "fully committed," 
or indicted), bail, by whom committed, charge, received, discharged, how 
discharged, remarks, etc. The Jail Register is in almost constant use during 
the day. It is consulted in answering the many inquiries of judges, attorneys, 
court clerks, police officers, bondsmen, etc. It is consulted and corrected 
whenever the legal status of a prisoner changes during his detention, and it is 
always referred to in discharging a prisoner. 

Auxiliary Registers. All prisoners permanently discharged from jail are 
listed on a daily sheet which becomes the daily record of outgoing prisoners. 
The items on this sheet are then posted into the Jail Register. Prisoners who 
are returned to the courts for trial are listed in a small, carbon-manifold book. 
In a similar way, each sentenced prisoner who leaves the jail for the House of 
Correction, the Reformatory or the Penitentiary is listed in a book which con- 
stitutes a record of periodical transfers. 

History Cards. Each new prisoner while in the receiving wing is inter- 
viewed by a clerk of the jail who fills out for him an individual history card. 
Until recently, and for many years, this history card was a 6 in. by 4 in. affair, 



(1) Female prisoners are received directly into the Women's Department in the new jail. Debtors also are 
received separately. 

(2) This same kind of Register has been used for the last fifteen or twenty years. 

154 






recording the following items of social history: Address, age, color, nationality, 
religion, occupation, married, children, parents living, how long in United 
States, education, and the number of times arrested. The following medical 
items also appear on the card: Scabies, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhoea; 
use of tobacco, liquor, drugs, condition of heart, lungs, general physical -con- 
dition; scars, marks, bruises, remarks, etc. The reverse side of the card con- 
tains the prisoner's signed statement authorizing the jailer to receive and 
examine his mail. Recently the card has been enlarged to include a few more 
items dealing with the legal history of the prisoner's present detention, and a 
report of discipline and transfer while in jail These cards are now filed alpha- 
betically in a "live" file until the prisoners is discharged. ( i) 

(b) Reports 

The Daily Report Book is apparently designed (a) to facilitate the daily 
(ount of prisoners and (b) to present a statistical summary of the jail popula- 
tion by days and months. This record, however, has not been kept up to date. 

The Monthly Report is prepared and submitted in typewritten form on 
the first of each month to the Criminal Court. It first summarizes the jail 
population on that date as follows: 

Number of prisoners awaiting trial on indictment. 
Number of prisoners awaiting action of Grand Jury. 
Number of prisoners awaiting action of Municipal Court. 
Number of prisoners awaiting action of Federal authorities. 
Number of prisoners at Oak Forest. 
Number of prisoners serving jail sentences. 
Number of prisoners sentenced to penitentiary. 
Number of prisoners sentenced to reformatory. 
Number of prisoners sentenced to house of correction. 
Number of debtors. 

Under the appropriate heading as above each prisoner's name, date of entry 
in jail, charge, indictment number (if indicted) are then tabulated separately. 

The Yearly Reports, typewritten, contain (a) daily average number of 
prisoners in jail, by months; (b) number of prisoners treated by physicians; 
(c) deaths by causes; (d) social and criminal record including number of arrests, 
family status, diseases, habits, color, nationality, charges, religion, occupation, 
etc. Many of these latter items are classified by sex and age. 

II. Criticism 

The tests of efficient jail records would seem to be, first, the comparative 
ease with which a jail officer, or any one else whose business it is to inquire, 
can secure a prompt, accurate and complete statement of the legal status and 
the detention record of a given prisoner now in the jail or any person who has 
ever been detained in the jail; and second, the comparative ease with which 
the jail administration or any one less legitimately concerned, can readily obtain 



(1) Up to May, 1922. history cards are filed by date. 

155 



from such records an accurate and complete statistical picture of the jail popu- 
lation of a given day, as well as at less frequent intervals. 

Judged by these tests the records and, therefore, the reports of the Cook 
County Jail are very inefficient. The main defects of the present records are, 
first, the difficulty and the time involved in securing and assembling the acces- 
sible information regarding a given prisoner, and second, the inadequacy of 
the information so obtained. To illustrate. In looking up prisoner John 
Smith now in jail in order, for example to determine the amount of his bail, 
a clerk may have to thumb through about a score or more of pages under the 
"S's" in the Jail Register, in order to locate the entry, unless he happens to 
know the date upon which the prisoner entered the jail. This, of course, is due 
to the fact that the prisoners are not discharged in the same order in which 
they are committed to jail. Suppose further that Smith's age, address, or 
nationality is desired, another such search must be made in another place. 
Suppose again that the jailer wants to know if the prisoner has ever been 
placed in "solitary," the search will be still harder and less satisfactorily 
rewarded. If Smith spent a few days or even weeks in the jail hospital, the 
meager entry in the hospital "log" describing medical treatment could not be 
found unless the date be first discovered. 

On the point of inadequacy, the chief defects of the records are with refer- 
ence to (a) the prisoner's social and economic status, (b) his previous criminal 
record, and (c) his medical and disciplinary treatment while in jail. For ex- 
ample, nothing is known about a prisoner's citizenship, his birthplace, time in 
United States, or in Cook County, his employers, etc. Again, all that is known 
of prisoner's previous criminal record, is the number of times that the prisoner 
himself says he has been previously arrested. ( Nothing is known of his aliases, 
the dates of his previous arrests, the charges, the sentences served, and the 
institutions committed to. Again, not until recently was even a record kept 
of the "confinement and cause." The same general defects also characterize 
the so-called medical "log."(2) 

III. Recommendations 

The concrete recommendations submitted herewith are designed to secure 
(a) more information about the prisoner before and during his detention in 
jail, and (b) to render all such important information easily accessible in one 
central place. 

The Chief proposal is to dispense with the Jail Register in its present form 
and to substitute for it a visible index-record, a system well-known and suc- 
cessfully applied in most modern banks and mercantile institutions. Applied 
to the needs of the jail, the Jail Register would consist of a portable, steel 
cabinet with a capacity for about one thousand record-cards, 11 in. by 8 in. 
Such a cabinet would contain about a dozen steel trays containing in each 
tray about one hundred record-cards placed flat and overlapping, thus ex- 
posing a half inch or so of each record devoted to the prisoner's name and other 
important data. Cards are inserted in a linen-celluloid pocket and can be 



(1) It is partly upon this unverified statement of the prisoner himself that he is classified and "celled" in jail. 

(2) This problem is dealt with more fully under the section on medical treatment. 

15G 






moved in the tray to permit of the insertion of another card at the correct 
alphabetical point. The pocket is so arranged that the entire surface of any 
card can be exposed instantly and written entries made thereon with ease and 
without removing the card from its pocket. The entire cabinet would be de- 
voted to "live" cases only; the record-card being removed to a "dead," vertical 
file, immediately the prisoner is discharged. 

By utilizing both sides of the record-card, it will be possible to provide in 
one place the complete record of the prisoner — his legal, medical and disci- 
plinary history while in detention, as well as the principal social facts and his 
criminal record. Appendix A contains the proposal for the front of the card 
and contains space for all items which might change during the prisoner's 
detention. Appendix B embodies the suggestions for the reverse side of the 
record-card and contains items which will not change and which will be 
referred to less frequently. 

By means of this system it is possible to provide an automatic, statistical 
summary of the jail population all the time. The arrangement proposed for the 
lower-right hand corner of the record-card is aimed to visualize the status of 
each prisoner with respect to the two legal variables which characterize the 
status of each prisoner in jail, viz., the charge and the legal status. The twenty 
offenses for which prisoners have most frequently been committed during the 
past two years have been statistically determined and given their respective 
rankings, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. By means of a small, transparently-colored, celluloid 
signal placed over the given number and offense, one could see at a glance the 
legal status of every prisoner without even referring to the face of the card. 
For example, a green signal might symbolize continued cases; yellow, fully com- 
mitted cases; red, indictments; purple, for safe-keeping, and blue for jail 
sentences. Thus by placing a green signal over "2" it would indicate "case con- 
tinued, disorderly conduct;" a red signal over "14" would mean "indictment, 
crime vs. children," and so on. To indicate the fact of sex in such a scheme, 
white cards might be used for males and a colored card for females. 

The traditional objection to any loose-leaf or loose-card might be made to 
this as to any other such system. However, the rapidly increasing use of 
loose-card devices would seem to negative somewhat such an objection. In 
order, however, to provide against the possible loss of a record-card, it is also 
proposed to furnish two day-books; one as in Appendix C,in which a daily 
record is kept of all incoming and outgoing prisoners, and at the same time, 
it will be noted, automatically to determine and record the daily population; 
the other as in Appendix D, would constitute a daily record of the changes in 
the legal status of prisoners in detention. From these two day-books items 
would then be posted to the record-index. 

By the adoption of such a system of simple, but centrally-assembled visible 
records as is here proposed, adequate reports could be secured at any desired 
frequency and with considered elaborateness as to detail, with the same and 
possible less clerical effort than is employed at present. 

Adena Miller Rich 
Arthur L. Beeley 
Chicago, June 30, 1922. 

157 



Recent Statistics 



Relating To Crime In Chicago 




EDITH ABBOTT 

Associate Professor, University of Chicago, 
Statistician, City Council Committee on Crime, 1915 



RECENT STATISTICS RELATING TO CRIME IN CHICAGO 

Statistics are now available that make possible a fairly complete summary 
of the facts relating to crime in Chicago, during the past five years. ( i) Such a 
summary has not been published since the Merriam Crime Committee issued 
its report in the Spring of 1915 (2), and recent statistics are needed as a basis 
for discussing the methods of dealing with criminals in this community. 

Unfortunately, there is neither in the city of Chicago, nor in the state of 
Illinois, a central bureau of criminal statistics through which statistics from the 
police department, the courts, the probation department, the jail, the House 
of Correction, and the state prisons, are collected and correlated. It is true 
that a state bureau of criminal statistics does exist on our statute books ; for by 
a law approved June 11, 1912, the State Charities Commission was directed 
to establish such a bureau with the secretary of the commission as director in 
charge. The proposed bureau was charged with the duty of collecting and 
publishing annually, the statistics of Illinois relating to crime; and all courts 
of Illinois, police magistrates, justices of the peace, clerks of all courts of record, 
sheriffs, keepers of all places of detention for crime or misdemeanors or viola- 
tions of the criminal statutes, are to "furnish said bureau annually, such informa- 
tion on request as it may require for compiling such statistics." Up to the 
present time, however, the commission has published only a preliminary report 
on this subject. (Illinois Institution Quarterly, VIII, No. 2, p. 77. June, 1917.) 

As to Chicago, there has never been any attempt made at an annual 
"stock-taking" in which the statistics furnished by the various departments 
and agencies dealing with the problem of crime might be brought together for 
examination. Such statistics are published for most of the city departments 
dealing with crime and could be obtained by an official bureau for the depart- 
ments or institutions that do not publish reports, such as the county jail and 
the criminal court. 

DEFINITIONS OF "CRIME" AND "CRIMINALS" 

Before discussing statistics relating to crime it is necessary to explain that 
the terms "crime" and "criminal" are loosely used. In a legal sense, all persons 
who are arrested are suspected criminals; and, if they are later convicted they 
are "criminals." That is, they are persons who are found to have violated a 



1. The chief sources of criminal statistics in Chicago are the following series of published reports: 

a. Annual reports of the Police Department. City of Chicago. (Last published report is for the year ending 
December 31, 1920.) 

b. Annual reports of the Municipal Court of Chicago. (Last published report, for the year ending November 
30, 1920.) 

c. Annual reports of the Adult Probation Office, Cook County. (Last published report for the year ending 
September, 1920.) 

d. Annual reports of the Superintendent of the House of Correction. City of Chicago. (Last published 
report, for the year ending December 31. 1920.) 

2. City Council Committee on Crime, of the City of Chicago. March 22. 1915. Professor Charles E. Merriam 
was chairma-n of this Committee and it is usually referred to as the "Merriam" Committee. 

160 



public law. But many of these laws deal with, very trivial offenses, and it is im- 
portant, therefore, to understand that the vast majority of arrests are arrests 
of petty offenders and that the vast majority of cases in the criminal branches 
of the municipal courts are the cases of persons who have only committed misde- 
meanors or violated city ordinances.- That is, the great majoiity of arrests are 
not for "crimes" at all, in the cases that most people understand the word 
'crime"; they are not arrests of persons suspected of murder or burglary or 
robbery; on the contrary, most of the persons taken into custody are merely 
charged with disorderly conduct, a term which covers a multitude of minor 
offenses. To call all the persons brought into these courts "criminals" is to 
use the word only in a legal or technical sense. 

In the public mind only the man who has committed a felony is a "crimi- 
nal". The person who has parked his automobile in the wrong place or refused 
to "move on" when ordered to do so by the police is an offender against the law, 
but he is not a "criminal" in the eyes of the community. The proportions of 
the real crime problem then are relatively small. The police, the courts, and 
all the other forms of criminal machinery that go with the enforcing the sanc- 
tions of the law are largely for the punishment of small offenses. 

The following table shows the relatively small number of arrests for 
felonies in comparison with the total number of arrests. 



TABLE I 

Total Number of Arrests, Number of Arrests for Felonies and Per 
Cent of All Arrests: Chicago, 1910-1921 







Arrests for Felonies 






Number 


Per cent of all 


Year 


All Arrests 




Arrests 


1910 


81,269 


9,376 


11.5 


1911 


84,840 


9,881 


11.6 


1912 


86,950 


10,276 


11.8 


1913 


109,764 


11,203 


10.2 


1914 


116,895 


15,101 


12.9 


1915 


121,714 


15,286 


12.6 


1916 


111,587 


12,314 


11.0 


1917 


137,910 


14,044 


10.2 


1918 


110,819 


12,080 


10.9 


1919 


96,676 


14,171 


14.7 


1920 


94,453 


15,273 


16.2 


1921 


125,843 


16,912 


13.4 



Two significant facts appear in this table; (1) that the number of felonies 
■or serious crimes is a very small percentage of the whole number of arrests; 
(2) that this percentage of serious crimes has been higher during the past three 



161 



years. Thus from 1910 through 1918 the percentage of arrests on felony 
charges varied from 10.2 to 12.9 of all arrests. In 1919 this percentage rose to 
14.7 and in 1920 to 16.2 of all arrests. 

Statistics Relating to the Extent of Crime in the Community 

The volume of crime in any community is a subject about which reliable 
information should be available. It is important, for example, that we should 
know whether crime is increasing or decreasing and whether there is, relatively, 
more crime in this than in other communities of the same size and character. 
But many crimes are concealed and remain undetected so that an exact quan- 
titive measure of the volume of crime can never be obtained. Statistics which 
might, however, serve as the basis for comparisons from year to year and from 
community to community, should be available. These statistics may be based 
on (1) criminal complaints made to the police; (2) arrests on felony charges; 
(3) convictions on felony charges in the criminal courts; (4) commitments to 
the county jail and to the House of Correction. 

Has Crime Increased in Chicago? 

Statistics of criminal complaints for the period 1915-1921 are presented 
in the following table, which shows the total number of criminal complaints and 
the number in proportion to the population. 



TABLE II 

Total Number of Criminal Complaints and the 
Number Per 10,000 Population, 





. 1915 - 1921 






Total Number of 


Number per 10,000 


Year 


Criminal Complaints 


Population 


1915 


25,497 


103.5 


1916 


20,133 


79.9 


1917 


16,495 


64.2 


1918 


11,041 


42.9 


1919 


16,656 


62.3 


1920 


14,097 


52.1 


1921 


11,666 


41.9 



Statistics of criminal complaints for the specific offenses burglary, robbery, 
and larceny are given in the table that follows: 



102 






TABLE III 

Criminal Complaints 

Year Burglary Robbery Larceny 

1915 9,788 2.304 9,751 

1916 7,174 1,747 8,846 

1917 5,623 . 1,984 7,234 

1918 3,643 1,405 5,210 
• 1919 5,884 2,649 6,795 

1020 5,460 2,620 5,251 

1921 4,785 2,594 3,700 

Unfortunately these statistics of criminal complaints cannot be accepted 
as a measure of the tendency of crime to increase or decrease since there are 
apparently frequent and sometimes erratic changes in the method of recording 
complaints. This subject was discussed in 1915 in the report of the Merriam 
Crime Committee, in which statistics were given for a period of nine years. 
It was pointed out in that report that, since in some years the arrests on felony 
charges actually exceed the number of criminal complaints, the complaint 
statistics must be unreliable. ( i) It will be noted that in 1920 and 1921, for 
example, the number of arrests on felony charges exceeds the number of crimi- 
nal complaints. It is also significant that there was a very marked decline in 
the number of criminal complaints in 1920 and again in 1921, although the 
number of arrests on felony charges increased in each of these years. 

Recently some further light has been thrown on this subject by the re- 
ports of the present so-called "Crime Commission," an association sup- 
ported by private funds. The Director of this organization in studying the 
criminal complaints received from police headquarters, ( 2) came to the conclusion 
that in a residence territory divided into two precincts commanded by two 
different police captains, there should be approximately the same number of 
criminal complaints from each if the same class of population was to be found 
in each precinct. When one district returned many complaints and the corre- 
sponding district very few, it seemed to be clear that there was "laxness or 
corruption on the part of the commanding officer in the district, or failure to 
report." A careful study of the question of whether or not some of the captains 
were not reporting complaints brought out the fact "that the captains were not 
reporting the complaints made to them to the Bureau of Records of the Police 
Department. In one instance, for a period of a month a certain captain reported 
but thirty-seven criminal complaints for his district. Investigation by the 
commission developed that there had been 141 complaints made to him and he 
had failed to report 104 of them. In the other instance 40 burglaries and 
robberies were known to have been committed, which were not reported. 

A detailed report of these was sent to the general superintendent of police 



(1) Seei 
For some i 

were published i . 

cated that apparently two sets of criminal complaints existed: (1) The complaints which were turned in and 

which constituted what was referred to as the "squeal book"; and (2) complaints which were not turned in from the 
precincts at all. 

(2) From "The Chicago Crime Commission." a paper read beforethe Annual Meeting of the American Institute 
of Criminal Law and Criminology, September 17, 1920. 

163 



and after verification by the department inspector, who found that they had 
been reported to the local precinct station by victims but had not been reported 
to the Bureau of Records, the captain in question was requested to explain his 
action. He replied in detail, Each excuse for failure to report is practically the 
same and one will suffice as an example. 

'Charles Hague, 6501 Yale Avenue, reported that he was held up and 
robbed of $9.45 in front of 340 West 66th Street, by three boys who strong- 
armed him. Mr. Hague could not give any description of his assailants and 
on that account no criminal complaint was forwarded.' 

The captain was transferred from the district but strong political in- 
fluence has been invoked to keep him in the department." 

Areests 

Statistics of arrests should also throw some light upon the question of the 
increase or decrease of crime. Here again, however, the statistics are in large 
measure vitiated by the fact that they are influenced by other factors than the 
actual number of offenses committed. That is, an increase in arrests may be 
due to increased efficiency or, at any rate, to increased activity on the part of 
the police and not to an increase in crime ; and a decrease in arrests may be due 
to an increased laxity or diminished activity or to the fact that the police are 
suspending the excessive use of the "drag-net" system and are no longer mak- 
ing wholesale arrests without adequate evidence of guilt. That is, statistics of 
arrests may serve to show more about the changes in police activity than about 
the actual changes in the number of crimes committed in the community. 

The following table shows the number of arrests for the period of 1910-1921. 
Statistics covering a decade are presented because the changes over this period 
do not indicate a single well-defined tendency but a series of erratic movements 
upward and then down and then up again. 

TABLE IV 

Areests (Charges), Felonies and Misdemeanors; Number 
and Number Per 10,000 Population: Chicago, 1910-21 
(From Annual Reports of the Police Department) 







Felonies 


Misdemeanors 


Total 






No. per 




No. per 




No. per 






10,000 




10,000 




10,000 






Popula- 




Popula- 




Popula- 


Year 


Number 


tion 


Number 


tion 


Number 


tion 


1910 


9,376 


42.9 


71,893 


329.0 


81,269 


371.9 


1911 


9,881 


43.9 


74,959 


333.2 


84,840 


377.1 


1912 


10,276 


44.6 


76,674 


333.1 


86,950 


377.7 


1913 


11,203 


47.6 


98,561 


418.6 


109,764 


466.2 


1914 


15,101 


62.6 


101,794 


422.2 


116,895 


484.8 


1915 


15,286 


62.1 


106,428 


431.8 


121,714 


493.9 


1916 


12,314 


48.9 


99,273 


394.3 


111,587 


443.2 


1917 


14,044 


54.6 


123,866 


481.9 


137,910 


536.5 


1918 


12,080 


46.0 


98,739 


376.5 


110,819 


422.5 


1919 


14,171 


52.9 


82,505 


308.4 


96,676 


361.3 


1920 


15,273 


56.5 


79,180 


293.1 


94,453 


349.6 


1921 


16.912 


60.8 


108.931 


391.8 


128,943 


452.6 



164 



The significant facts here are (1) an increase in arrests for felonies since 
1918 and (2), until the year 1921, a decrease in arrests for misdemeanors. There 
were more arrests for felonies in 1921 than in any other year in the decade, but 
not quite so many in proportion to the population as in the years 1914 and 1915. 

The marked decline in the number of misdemeanors in 1918, 1919 
and 1920, is interesting and significant. Undoubtedly, the war, which on the 
one hand withdrew large numbers of men from civil life and on the other hand 
was responsible for the employment at high wages of those who remained out 
of the army, explains in large part the decline both in felony and misdemeanor 
charges in 1918. In 1919, however, when felony charges increased, the num- 
ber of misdemeanor charges showed a further and marked decline, which, with 
the continuing decline in 1920. should probably be attributed to the effects of 
prohibition. The increase during the past year (1921) in both felony and mis- 
demeanor charges is more difficult to explain. 

Indictments 

The number of indictments should also be examined, although here again 
an increase in numbers may be due to increased activity on the part of the 
prosecuting officials and a decrease may similarly be caused by the diminished 
zeal of such officials. 



TABLE V 

Number of Cases Held to the Grand Jury, Number and Per Cent in 
Which no Bills Were Returned by the Grand Jury, 1914-1921 

(From Annual Reports of the Chicago Police Department) 





Held to 


Number of "No 


Per Cent 


Year 


The 


Bills' 


Returned 


of 




Grand Jury 


by Grand Jury 


"No Bills" 


1914 


3,582 




996 


27.8 


1915 


3,569 




845 


23.7 


1916 


3,210 




1,077 


33.6 


1917 


3,794 




925 


24.4 


1918 


3,179 




657 


20.7 


1919 


4,546 




932 


20.5 


1920 


4,962 




503 


10.1 


1921 


5,704 




579 


10.2 






Convictions on Felony Charges 



The statistics given show only the numbers of persons charged with 
offenses, the number arrested or tried. More satisfactory for obvious reasons 
are statistics showing the number of convictions. The following table shows 
the number of convictions upon felony and misdemeanor charges and the num- 
ber per 10,000 population, 1915-1921. 



165 



TABLE VI 

Number of Convictions Upon Felony and Misdemeanor Charges and 
the Number Per 10,000 Population: 1915-1921 



Convictions: Felonies 



Convictions: Misdemeanors 







Number per 




Number per 


Year 


Number 


10,000 
Population 


Number 


10,000 
Population 


1915 


4,739 


19.2 


42,248 


171.4 


1916 


3,325 


13.2 


33,441 


132.8 


1917 


4,905 


19.1 


41,765 


162.5 


1918 


4,341 


16.6 


30,844 


117.6 


1919 


4,066 


15.2 


28,395 


106.1 


1920 


4,282 


15.8 


24,228 


89.7 


1921 


4,224 


15.2 


36,043 


129.9 



The statistics presented in this table indicate that, so far as convictions 
on felony charges are concerned, there has been a marked downward tendency 
since 1917. There was, it is true, a slight increase in 1920, but it was an in- 
crease of less than one in 10,000 population, and even then the number was 
very clearly lower than in 1917. There was an increase in misdemeanor con- 
victions last year (1921), but, in spite of the increase, the number convicted 
per 10,000 population was greatly below the number convicted in the years 
1915, 1916 and 1917. 

This table should be compared with the number of arrests per 10,000 
population (Table IV. ). In 1918 there was a decline in felony arrests and 
a corresponding decline in convictions. But in 1919, when there was a marked 
increase in arrests, there was a decline in convictions; again in 1921, although 
there was an increase in the number of arrests on felony charges from 56.5 to 
60.8 per 10,000 population, there was a decline in the number of convictions 
on such charges from 15.8 to 15.2 per 10,000 population. In general, of course, 
statistics of convictions should follow the general trend of arrests or police 
charges. An increase in charges and a decrease in convictions seems to indicate 
either(l) that charges are being unwarrantably made without being based on 
proper evidence of guilt, or (2) that the charges are not being properly prosecuted. 

The Waste of Needless Arrests 

Are the police making arrests unnecessarily? Are residents of Chicago 
being subjected, without basis for such charges, to the humiliation, disgrace 
and expense connected with an arrest; not only in this, but in many cases, there 
is the further disgrace and demoralization of detention in the police station 
and county jail, as well. There is a tremendous social and economic waste il 
large numbers of persons are arrested on charges too flimsy to warrant prost 



](>« 






cution and conviction. Statistics making possible a comparison between the 
number of cases discharged and convicted should throw light on this point. 

The following table shows the total number of cases disposed of and the 
number of cases discharged, nolled, etc., together with the number of convic- 
tions and the per cent of convictions for the period 1910-1921: 



TABLE VII 

Cases Disposed op in the Municipal and Criminal Courts, 
1910-1921, With Numbers Discharged and Convicted 

(Compiled from Annual Reports of the Chicago Police Department) 








Total Number 


Discharged, 


Convicted ( 3) 


Year 


of Cases 


Nolled, 




Per Cent 




Disposed of.(i) 


Etc. (2) 


Number 


of Total. 


1910 


77,077 


44,286 


32,791 


42.6 


1911 


80,882 


49,034 


31,848 


39.4 


1912 


82,465 


51,978 


30,487 


36.9 


1913 


107,197 


58,532 


48,665 


52.7 


1914 


115,466 


64,836 


50,630 


43.8 


1915 


166,575 


71,079 


95,496 


57.3 


1916 


109,661 


72,895 


36,766 


33.5 


1917 


134,830 


88,160 


46,670 


34.6 


1918 


107,774 


72,589 


35,185 


32.6 


1919 


93,987 


61,526 


32,461 


34.5 


1920 


- 90,476 


61,966 


28,510 


31.5 


1921 


117,912 


77,645 


40,267 


34.1 



(1) Omitted from the total number of charges are those turned over to the United States authorities; otherwise 
disposed of: pending and held to Juvenile Court. 

(2) Discharged, nolled, etc., includes bonds forfeited; no bills by Grand Jury; discharged; nolled. 

(3) Convicted includes all those sentenced to hang; sentenced to Joliet and Chester; sentenced to Pontiac; sen- 
tenced to the county jail ; sentenced to the House of Correction ; sentenced to other corrective institutions ; fined ; placed 
on probation; released on peace bonds; ordered to make weekly payments. 

This table shows that only 34 out of every hundred charges disposedjof 
in 1921 resulted in convictions and only 32 out of 100 in 1920 resulted in con- 
victions. The per cent of convictions was small before 1915, but it has fallen 
very much lower since that time; starting from 57 convictions out of the hun- 
dred charges in 1915, the number fell to 33.5 in the next year, to 32.6 in 1918, 
and later fell to the very low figure of 31.5 in 1920. In 1914, commenting 
on the fact that the majority of the thousands of persons who are brought into 
our courts are discharged without conviction, the Merriam Crime Committee 
said: 

"The hardships and waste of this system are obvious. Following the assumption 
that those discharged are innocent, then in 1913, 57 per cent of all the 121,333 persons 
who were brought into the Municipal Court for felonies, for misdemeanors, or for 
violations of ordinances, were innocent and should not have been brought into court 
at all; that is, more than 60,000 persons were brought into court needlessly. Nearly 



167 



all of these persons had been arrested, many thousand of them had spent hours at 
least in the police stations, many hundreds had spent weeks or months in the county 
jail. They had all had the humiliation and expense of being arrested and tried, and 
the taxpayers had borne the cost of the police who arrested them, of the police 
stations or jails that had detained them, of the courts and Judges and other court 
officials who had been part of the machinery that tried them. There is more than 
this to be considered. Unjustified arrests and imprisonment create a disrespect 
for the law that in turn breeds lawlessness. (1) 

The following list of arrests, nearly all of which resulted in discharges, has 
been compiled from the last report of the Municipal Court of Chicago (1920). 
Most of these arrests were made under Ordinance 2012 that deals with "Dis- 
orderly Conduct," but it is important to know the precise offenses covered by 
the disorderly conduct charge. The following series of cases illustrates the 
"crimes" committed by our numerous petty offenders: 

"2012, picked up 4 ;00 P. M., discharged army three weeks ago;" "just came from 
Bridewell, discharged"; "Sitting in vacant flat, discharged"; "2012 no home, 
discharged"; "On the street 11:30 P. M., $25 and costs (House of Correction)"; 
"Walked around Chicago all night. Belongs to 7th Regiment, 2012, discharged"; 
"Pool room raid, discharged"; "2012, sleeping in wagon, discharged"; "2012, sleep- 
ing in alley, drunk, discharged"; "standing in doorway 11 P. M., discharged"; "2012, 
loafing in depot, discharged"; "2012, standing on corner 5:30 A. M., discharged"; 
"2012, sleeping on roof of building at 1 A. M., discharged"; "2012, on railway 
property, had fight with officer, discharged"; "2012, on street 12:50 A. M., dis- 
charged. Said was picked up because of past arrest"; "Vagrancy, discharged"; 
"Bumming, discharged"; "Gang fight, discharged (ran away from Lincoln)"; "2012, 
out of work 1 month, probation 6 months"; "Smoking cigarette in the Park, dis- 
charged"; "2012 in a restaurant 6:30 A. M., discharged"; "2012, on street at 2. 
A. M., not staying home, discharged"; "2012, just out of the House of Correction, 
discharged"; "2012, picked up on suspicion, discharged"; "2012, picked up at 2 
A. M., discharged"; "2012, goofing on the coiner, discharged"; "2012, climbing up 
T/ road to get a free ride, discharged"; "2012, on street at 3 P. M., discharged"; 
"2012, picked up going to work 8:30 A. M., discharged"; "2012, picked up 10:30 
A. M., discharged"; "2012, sleeping in a barn, probation 6 months"; "2012, in an 
alley between 12 and 1 A. M., fined $10 and costs"; "2012, standing on a corner, 
discharged"; "2012, picked up standing in front of a restaurant, discharged"; "2012, 
on street at 9 A. M., discharged"; "2012, bumming from home three weeks, dis- 
charged"; "2012, was hit on head by officer, $200 and costs, sent to hospital for 
treatment, discharged"; "2012, on street at 5.30 A. M., "going to work, discharged"; 
"Robery, C. C, $2,500. Beaten up by policeman. His eye almost knocked out and 
wrist broken. Pontiac"; "2012, sleeping in a basement, discharged'" "Fooling 
around a Ford on the street at 12 P. M., House of Correction, 2 months"; "2012, 
fight, discharged"; "Vagrancy, discharged"; "2012, cranking a car for a boy who said 
the car belonged to him, discharged"; "Picked up late, fined $10 and costs"; "2012, 
is a bum, feeble-minded, sent to Lincoln"; "2012, discharged, ran away from Lincoln 
four days after commitment"; "2012, discharged." 

The percentage of convictions for serious offenses (felonies) is even lower 
than the percentage of convictions for all offenses. The following table shows 



(1) See report of the City Council Committee on Crime of the C'ty of Chicago, (1915), pp. 42-43. Statistician's 
report, by E. Abbott. 

The large percentage of discharges was explained in the earlier report by an account of the precise charges on 
which arrests had been made. A list of some of the typically trivial charges heard in the Boys' Court was given 
as follows : 

L*» J- — ■ T — is arrested because he "made a loud noise at 21st and Dearborn and threw a dog out in the street by the 
leg." H — S — is arrested for "standing on street corner at 8:50 P. M." A — D — for sleeping in a barn, andF — W — 
for sleeping on the prairie because he had just got a job and had no other place to go that night. E— E— "playing 
ball on street." G — S — "with two men sleeping in wagon at 2 A. M. at Liberty and Halsted Streets." all arrested! 
A — F — "sleeping in barn." C — T — "nipping trains into town." W — G — • "singing'' in Lincoln Park at the High 
Bridge." A — U — "girl said some remarks were made to her on street by defendant; defendant cannot speak English 
nor she his language." J — L— "sleeping in barn ;" two weeks later, "rushing the can with a crowd." J — B — "two 
boys sleeping in hallway," both boys arrested again within a few weeks for similar offense and discharged. 



168 






separately for felonies and misdemeanors the total number of charges and the 
total number of convictions. 

TABLE VIII 

Charges and Convictions and Per Cent of Convictions 
for Felonies and Misdemeanors 1915-1921 (i) 







FELONIES 




MIS 


DEMEAN 


ORS 






Convic- 


Per Cent 


N- 


Convic- 


Per Cent 


Year 


Charges 


tions 


Convicted 


Charges 


tions 


Convicted 


1915 


15,286 


4,739 


31.0 


106,428 


42,248 


39.7 


1916 


12,314 


3,325 


27.0 


99,273 


33,441 


33.9 


1917 


14,044 


4,905 


34.9 


123,573* 


41,765 


33.8 


1918 


12,080 


3,341 


35.9 


98,739 


30,844 


31.2 


1919 


14,171* 


4,066 


28.7 


82,505 


28,395 


34.4 


1920 


15,272 


4,282 


28.0 


79,180 


24,228 


30.6 


1921 


16,912 


4,224 


24.9 


108,931 


36,043 


33.1 



It appears from this table that approximately only one-fourth of the felony 
charges resulted in convictions. Thus out of every 100 persons who are arrested 
for serious offenses, many of whom are held to the Grand Jury and degraded 
and poisoned by a period of detention in the county jail, 75 are not convicted. 
The percentages of convictions varies for different crimes. In the table which 
follows, the charges and convictions for felonies for which 100 or more persons 
were brought into court are shown, together with the per cent of convictions. 






TABLE IX. 

Convictions on Certain Felony Charges in the Municipal and Criminal 
Courts, 1920, with Number of Charges and 
Percentage Convicted ( i) 

Number of Number of Per Cent 

FELONIES Charges Convictions Convictions 

Burglary 1,902 506 26 . 6 

Burglary, attempted 141 40 28.4 

Confidence game 1,011 138 13.6 

Conspiracy 240 18 7.5 

Crime against children 169 50 29.6 

Embezzlement and larceny by. . 184 31 16.8 

Forgery 112 17 15.2 

Larceny and Larceny by bailee . 5,471 2,533 46.3 

Larceny of automobile 458 130 28.4 

Malicious mischief 304 81 26 . 6 

Murder 198 30 15 . 2 

Murder, attempted 316 46 14 .6 

Rape 196 29 14.9 

Receiving stolen property 1,150 197 17.0 

Robbery 1,862 283 15 . 2 

Robbery, attempted 187 25 13.3 

(1) Compiled from Annual Reports Chicago Police Department. 

160 



This table shows that for many felonies the convictions fall below the 25 
per cent for all felonies. For murder, only 15 per cent are convicted ; for robbery 
15 per cent; for embezzlement 16.8 per cent; for "confidence game" 13.6 per 
cent; for attempted murder 15 per cent; for receiving stolen property 17 per 
cent. 

A small percentage of convictions may mean either that a large number 
of persons are arrested without evidence of guilt and therefore must be dis- 
charged as innocent or that persons who are really guilty are discharged through 
some inefficiency of the prosecuting machinery. In either case the result is 
demoralizing to the community. Innocent men cannot be treated like criminals 
without contamination. Such a system breeds criminals instead of preventing 
crime. 

Small Percentage of Unnecessary Arrests in London and England 

The situation in Chicago as regards unnecessary arrests is in marked con- 
trast to that in England. The following table shows the number of cases tried 
in the higher criminal courts in London in the year 1919, the most recent year 
for which statistics are available. 

TABLE X 

Disposition of Cases (Indictable Offenses) Assizes and Quarter 
Sessions, London, 1919, Numbers and Per Cent Distribution* 



Number of persons for trial 

Disposition : 

Found insane on arraignment 

Guilty, but insane 

Sentenced to death 

Sentenced to penal servitude 

Sentenced to imprisonment 

Sentenced to Bortsal 

Probation 

Recognizances 

Convicted and otherwise disposed of. 

Total convicted 



r 



No prosecution Digcld 
Acquitted ( 





Per Cent 


dumber 


Distribution 


2,306 


100.0 


2 


0.1 


3 


0.1 


2 


0.1 


97 


4.2 


908 


39.4 


85 


3.7 


444 


19.3 


180 


7.8 


22 


0.9 


1,743 


75.6 


2 


0.1 


561 


24.3 



Total discharged 563 2 44 



This table shows that in London in 1919, 76 per cent of the persons tried 
for indictable offenses in the higher criminal courts were convicted and 24 per 



* Compiled from Criminal .Judicial Statistics. England and 'Wales, 1919, Tabic VI, (Cmd. 14240 

170 






cent were discharged. In the same year in Chicago 29 per cent of the felony 
cases disposed of resulted in convictions and 71 per cent were discharged. Last 
year (1921), in Chicago, 75 per cent of the felony cases disposed of were dis- 
charged and 25 per cent resulted in convictions. 

It is of interest too, that the per cent of convictions in London was below 
the per cent for the whole of England and Wales. The following table shows 
the disposition of cases of persons tried for indictable offenses in England and 
Wales in 1919. 



TABLE XI 

Disposition of Cases (Indictable Offenses) Assizes and Quarter 
Sessions, England and Wales, 1919, Numbers and 
Per Cent Distribution 



Number of Persons for Trial 

Found insane on arraignment 

Guilty, but insane 

Sentenced to death 

Sentenced to penal servitude 

Sentenced to imprisonment 

Sentenced to Borstal 

Probation 

Recognaizances 

Convicted and otherwise disposed of 

Total Convicted. . 

No Prosecution 

Acquitted 

Total Discharged 





Per Cent 


Number 


Distribution 


7,883 


100.0 


29 


0.4 


29 


0.4 


24 


0.3 


376 


4.8 


3,914 


49.6 


412 


5.2 


564 


7.2 


775 


9.8 


127 


1.6 


6,250 


79.3 


8 


0.1 


1,625 


20.6 



1,633 



20.7 



* Compiled from Criminal Judicial Statistics England and Wales, 1919, Table VI, (Cmd. 1424.) 

This table shows that 79 per cent of these cases resulted in convictions 
and only 21 per cent were acquitted or not prosecuted. 

As regards minor offenses a similar contrast exists between the British and 
the Chicago policy. The following table shows the disposition of cases in 
courts of summary jurisdiction in England and Wales in the year 1919. 



171 



TABLE XII 

Disposition of Cases of persons Proceeded Against in Courts of 

Summary Jurisdiction. England and Wales, 1919. 

Numbers and Per cent Distribution( i) 

Per Cent 
Number Distribution 

Persons proceeded against 498,358 100.0 

Disposition: 

Sentenced to imprisonment 17,956 3 . 6 

Sentenced to police cells 156 

Sentenced to Reformatory and Indus- 
trial Schools 1,086 0.2 

Fine 379,241 76.1 

Recognizances 11,574 2 . 3 

Probation 4,874 1 . 

Sent to institutions for defectives 80 * 

Otherwise disposed of 792 . 2 

Total 415.759 83.4 

Charge proved and case dismissed 28,421 5.7 

Charge withdrawn or dismissed 54,178 10.9 

Total 82,599 16.6 

(1) Compiled from Criminal Judicial Statistics, England and Wales, 1919, (Cmd. 1424). Cases tried in the 
Juvenile Courts are not included in the table. 
* Less than one-tenth of one per cent. 

In Chicago in 1919, 66 per cent of the misdemeanor charges in our criminal 
courts resulted in discharges and only 33 per cent in convictions, whereas in 
England and Wales in the same year, 83 per cent of all the persons proceeded 
against in the minor criminal courts, were convicted, and only 17 per cent 
acquitted or dismissed. 

Small Percentage of Unnecessary Arrests in Canada 

Not only in England but in Canada there is a small percentage of dis- 
charges and a large percentage of convictions in the criminal courts. 

TABLE XIII 

Disposition of Indictable Offenses in Canada, 1919, Acquittals and 
Convictions, Numbers and per Cent Distribution( 2) 

Numbers Per Cent Distribution 
1919 1920 1919 1920 

Acquittals 4,625 4,770 20.1 20.5 

Convictions 18,396 18,443 79 . 9 79 . 5 

\ 

Charges 23,021 23,213 100.0 100.0 

2 From 45th Annual Report of Criminal Statistics for Canada. 1920. p. x (lOd. 1921). 

172 






This table shows that in Canada in two successive years there were, for 
indictable offenses, approximately 20 per cent of acquittals and SO per cent of 
convictions, while in Chicago in the same time there were approximately 71 per 
cent of dismissals or acquittals and only 28 or 29 per cent of convictions. 

These statistics present a challenge to the thoughtful citizen. Has the 
administration of criminal justice in Chicago become so inefficient or corrupt 
or both that out of every hundred felony charges, only 28 or 29 result in con- 
victions whereas in the courts of Canada or in England approximately 75 or 80 
out of every hundred persons tried for similar offenses are found guilty? 

The statistics show that we have in Chicago a system of dealing with crime 
that is in itself a cause of crime. For a high percentage of discharges or ac- 
quittals means one of two things; Either innocent people are being arrested 
who must be discharged in court or who cannot even be prosecuted because 
there is insufficient evidence against them; or persons who are guilty are dis- 
charged because of inefficient, incompetent, or corrupt administration of the 
machinery of criminal justice. In either case, a crime-producing situation 
exists. For innocent men are made criminals through associating with criminals 
in police stations and jails and courts. And in the other case, the uncertainty 
of punishment, the large chances of escape from conviction tempt men to adopt 
or continue criminal careers. 

The arrest of the innocent and the escape of the guilty are evils indicated 
by the high percentage of discharges and are evils which lead to an increase in 
crime and tend to defeat the very purpose for which the machinery of criminal 
justice is organized. 

A more detailed study of the disposition of criminal cases shows other facts 
of interest about those convicted. The following table shows how cases were 
actually disposed of during a period of five years, the quinquennium, 1916-1920. 






17.-5 



TABLE XIV 

Disposition of Cases in the Municipal Courts and Criminal 

Courts, Chicago, 1916-1920 

Disposition of Cases: 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 

All cases disposed of 109,661 134,830 107,774 93,987 90,476 

Sentenced to hang 2 1 4 7 

Sentenced to Joliet and Chester 

Penitentiaries 198 199 116 235 198 

Sentenced to Pontiac Reforma- 
tory 244 326 221 207 177 

Sentenced to County Jail 105 380 296 221 370 

Sentenced to House of Correction 2,508 3,655 3,045 2,425 2,086 
Sentenced to other correctional 

institutions 8 24 

Fined 30,809 38,754 29,092 25,586 21,878 

Placed on probation. 1,971 2,561 1,988 2,947 2,500 

Released on peace bonds 135 112 64 146 740 

Ordered to make weekly pay- 
payments 794 683 372 682 530 

Bonds forfeited 611 412 309 612 3,206 

Discharged, No bills by Grand 

Jury, nolled, etc 72,284 87,748 72,280 60,914 58,760 



TABLE XIV (A) 

Disposition or Cases: Quinquennial Average 1916-1920 

Per Cent 

Number Distribution 

All cases disposed of 107,346 100.0 

Sentenced to hang 3 

Sentenced to major prisons (Joliet, Chester 

Pontiac 424 0.4 

Sentenced to minor prisons (County Jail, 

House of Correction 3,023 2 . 8 

Fined 29,224 27.2 

Placed on probation 2,393 2 . 2 

Released on peace bonds and ordered to 

make weekly payments 852 . 8 

Bonds forfeited 1,030 1.0 

Discharged, No bills, nolled, etc 70,397 65.6 



"Loss than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 

174 



COUNTY JAIL AND HOUSE OF CORRECTION 

Other statistics which might also be expected to throw some light on the 
question of whether there has been an increase or decrease in crime are the 
statistics of the County Jail and House of Correction. The number of persons 
received in each of these institutions during the period 1914-1921 was as follows : 

TABLE XV 

Number op Persons Received in the County Jail and in 
the House of Correction, 1914-1921 

Number of Per- Number of Per- 
Year sons Received in sons Committed 

County Jail House of Cor- 
rection 

1914 9,657 15,150 

1915 * 16,446 

1916 9,020 13,053 

1917 * 15,930 

1918 .' * 10,294 

1919 8,618 5,723 

1920 8,759 4,682 

1921 10,642 8,566 

♦Figures not available. 

Statistics from the House of Correction are of interest because of the 
marked decline in the numbers received there in the years 1919 and 1920. The 
first conspicuous drop in numbers came in 1918, when the number committed 
fell from 15,930 in 1917 to 10,294 in the following year. Probably as a result of 
the prohibition law there was a further and a very marked decline continuing 
through the years 1919 and 1920. The commitments in 1921 increased very 
substantially over those for 1920 but the number committed in 1921 neverthe- 
less remained 48 per cent below the number committed in 1915. 

The statistics of the number of persons lodged in the County Jail should be 
compared with the number of convictions on felony charges. These two groups 
of statistics might be expected to follow the same general trend unless persons 
are detained in jail- unnecissarily. However, comparing table XV with table 
VIII, the extraordinary fact appears that although the number of persons in 
the County Jail increased from 8,759 in 1920 to 10,642 in 1921, an increase of 
21 pencent, the number of convictions on felony charges fell from 4,282 to 
4,224, a decrease of 1 per cent. 

Commitments for the Non-Payment of Fines 

The City Council Crime Committee in 1915 reported that the Chicago 
House of Correction was being supported at great expense to the taxpayers 
largely to take care of men who were too poor to pay the small fines assessed 

175 



against them. For a series of years more than 80 per cent of the persons com- 
mitted to the House of Correction had been committed for the non-payment of 
fines. This committee recommended the adoption of the system of allowing 
poor people to pay fines by installments so that men would no longer be com- 
mitted to prison simply because of inability to pay their fines. The legislature 
approved this recommendation, and in 1915 passed an amendment to the adult 
probation law (an amendment recommended by the Chief Adult Probation 
Officer as well as by the City Coucil Committee) permitting the release on pro- 
bation of men and women unable to pay fines and provided for the collection of 
fines by installments through the Adult Probation Department. 

Recent statistics show that the judges are making little use of the install-, 
ment fine system. No statistics are available as to the numbers of persons 
actually released under this system but the House of Correction statistics 
which are given below, show the numbers still committed not for their crimes 
but for their poverty. 

TABLE XVI 

Commitments to the House of Correction, 1914-1921 







Numbers 










Committed for 






fear 


Sentenced 


Non-Payment 
of Fines 


Fined and 
Sentenced 


Total 


1914 


1,088 


12,005 


2.057 


15,150 


1915 


1,111 


12,841 


2,494 


16,446 


1916 


840 


10,275 


1,938 


13,053 


1917 


1,334 


12,103 


2,493 


15,930 


1918 


1,045 


6,963 


2,286 


10,294 


1919 


797 


3,509 


1,417 


5,723 


1920 


435 


2,822 


1,425 


4,682 


1921 


672 


6,005 


1,889 


8,566 



Percentages 







Committed for 


Fined and 




Year 


Sentenced 


Non-Payment 
of Fines 


Sentenced 


Total 


1914 


7.2 


79.2 


13.6 


100.0 


1915 


6.7 


78.1 


15.2 


100.0 


1916 


6.4 


78.7 


14.9 


100.0 


1917 


8.4. 


76.0 


15.6 


100.0 


1918 


10.2 


67.6 


22.2 


100.0 


1919 


13.9 


61.3 


24.8 


100.0 


1920 


9.3 


60.3 


30.4 


100.0 . 


1921 


7.8 


70.1 


22.1 


100.0 



176 



This table shows that both the numbers of those committed to the House 
of Correction for all causes fell very sharply in 1918 and the following years and 
the numbers of those committed for the non-payment of fines fell along with 
all commitments. The table shows too that the percentage of those committed 
for the non-payment of fines fell from 79 per cent of the total number committed 
in 1914 to 60 per cent of the total committed in 1920. and then rose again in the 
year 1921 to 70 per cent of those committed. 

That 70 per cent or even 60 per cent of those who are sent to the Bridewell 
to be supported at the expense of the taxpayers, are sent there only because 
they are poor, remains a public scandal and disgrace to the city of Chicago. 

Decline in Commitments for Non-Payment of Fines in Great Britain 

These facts as to the extent of imprisonment for the non-payment of fines 
should be the more carefully considered in our country in view of the fact that 
the whole evil system has been practically swept away in Great Britain since the 
enactment of the Criminal Justice Administration Act of 1914. In our sup- 
posedly more democratic country it appears that in the second largest city in 
the country the judges sent last year to our city workhouse 6,000 men and 
women who were too poor to pay the fines imposed upon them. This evil is 
unfortunately not confined to Chicago ; when the last federal census of prisoners . 
was taken, the returns showed that in the country as a whole more than 290,000 
persons were imprisoned in this way in a single year. In the meantime Great 
Britain has adopted the more efficient and humane policy of doing away gradu- 
ally with this last surviving remnant of the out-worn system of imprisonment 
for debt. Since 1905, it had been optional with the Biitish courts to give a man 
time to pay his fine, but in 1914 it ceased to be optional and became mandatory. 
The first section of the Criminal Justice Administration Act of 1914 provided 
that in all cases time must be given for the payment of fines and the time must 
not be less than seven clear days. At the end of this time further time may be 
allowed by the court and payment in instalments may be allowed. The act 
contains the further humane provision that in imposing a fine the court. is to 
take into consideration "the means of the offender so far as they appear or are 
known to the court." This provision puts an end to what the Prison Com- 
missioners for Scotland Yard called the "abuse which. . . arises from the 
imposition for certain offenses of fines upon a stereotyped scale, which neces- 
sarily press much more hardly upon the very poor than upon those who are 
better off." Reports of the three Prison Commissions of England, Scotland, 
and Ireland all testify to the beneficial results of the Act of 1914 in operation. 
The new system is not only humane but economical. The great saving to the 
taxpayers is indicated by the figures showing the great reduction in the number 
of persons committed to prison for the non-payment of fines in England and 
Wales in 1900-10 and 1910-20.(0 

Number Committed for Per Cent of Total 

Year Non-payment of Fine ' Commitments 

1909-10 90,753 50 

1919-20 9,303 26 



(1) Report of the Commissioner of Prisons and the Directors of Convict Prisons for the year ending 31st, March 
1920 (Cmd. 972), pp. 9-10. 



177 



Other data relating to the payment of fines are found in the Criminal 
Judicial Statistics of England and Wales. In 1913, before the passage of the Act 
of 1914, fines were imposed by courts of summary jurisdiction in 502,554 cases, 
and 75,152 persons were committed for non-payment of fines. In 191 9 fines were 
imposed in 393,726 cases but fewer than 10,000 persons were imprisoned for 
non-payment of fines. While this reduction has been largely due to the Crimi- 
nal Justice Administration Act, the fact should not be overlooked that it is also 
due in part to the fact that the fines assessed have remained at the old pre-war 
rate and have not increased to correspond with the higher rates of wages, and a 
much larger proportion of offenders have therefore been able to pay the fines 
imposed, (i) That is, the poor and the rich have been placed more nearly on a 
footing of equality before the law. 

Persons are Committed for Very Small Fines 

Not only do our statistics show that hundreds of persons are being animally 
imprisoned for inability to pay fines but these persons are imprisoned for fines 
of very small amounts. The following table shows the amount of the fines for 
which people are committed to the Chicago House of Correction. 



TABLE XVII 

Number of Persons Committed to the House of Correction for Non- 
Payment of Fines of Specificed Amounts — 1921 



Amount of Fine 



Number of Persons 

Committed for Non- Per Cent Distribution 

Payment of Fines 



Less than $5 




86) 


Commitments 


1.4) 
15. 7[ 


Commitments 


$ 5 and less than $ 10 


940 ( 


for less than 


for less than 


10 and less than 


15 


1,126 

1,158/ 


$20: 


18.8 
19.3) 


$20: 


15 and less than 


20 


3,310 


55.2 per cent 


20 and less than 


30 


234 




3.9 




30 and less than 


40 


925 




15.4 




40 and less than 


50 


19 




0.3 




50 and less than 


75 


521 




8.7 




75 and less than 


100 


19 




0.3 




100 and less than 


150 


538 




8.9 




150 and less than 


200 


5 




0.1 




200 and over 


200 


433 




7.2 




Total 


6,005 


100.0 





(1) Cmd. 1424. p. 6. The use of the short sentence has also been largely done away with in Great Britain by the 
Criminal Justice Administration Act of 1914. The act contains two provisions designed to do away with short and 
useless sentences of imprisonment: (1) The courts are given power to substitute for a sentence of imprisonment, an 
order that the offender be detained for one day within the precincts of the court. (21 If a sentence of imprisonment 
does not exceed four days, the offender is not to be sent to jail, but is to be detained in a "suitable place" certified as 
such by the Home Secretary. The Commissioners of Prisons for England and 'Wales emphasized in their 1915 report 
the importance of the Act of 1914 in preventing the development of a criminal class As to the short sentence they 
say that it has not a "single redeeming feature." "It carries with it all the social stigma and industrial penalties of 
imprisonment with no commensurate gain to the offender Or the community. If there still survives in the minds of 
administrators of justice the obsolete and exploded theory that prison is essentially a place for punishment — and for 
punishment alone — for the expiation of offenses in dehumanizing, senseless tasks, and arbitrary discipline, truly there 
could not be devised a more diabolical form of punishment then the short sentence oft repeated" (Report of the 
Prison Commissionr rs (Cd. 7837, p. 18.) 

ITS 



These statistics of commitment for the non-payment of fines show that in 
1921, 86 persons were imprisoned in Chicago for fines of less than $5; 940 for 
fines ranging from $5 to $10; 1126 for fines ranging from $10 to $15; and 1158 
for fines ranging from $15 to $20. That is, taking the numbers cumulatively, 
. 3,310 persons, over 55 per cent of the whole number, were sent to prison in 
Chicago in 1921 for fines of less than $20. 

Use of the Probation System 

It is in line with our reluctance to use the instalment fine system that the 
use of the adult probation system has made so little progress in Chicago in 
recent years. The following table shows the number of probationers 1914-1921. 



TABLE XVIII 

Number of Persons Convicted. Number on Probation, and Per Cent 
of Convicted Persons Placed on Probation in Chicago, 

1914-1921 









Per Cent of Con- 


Year 


Total Number 


Number Placed 


victed Persons 




Convicted 


on Probation 


Placed on 
Probation 


1914 


50,630 


4,696 


9.3 


1915 


95,496 


3,629 


3.8 


1916 


36,766 


3,763 


10.2 


1917 


46,670 


4,554 


9.7 


1918 


35,185 


3,922 


11.1 


1919 


32,461 


4,657 


14.2 


1920 


28,510 


3,692 


12.9 


1921 


40,267 


2,417 


6.0 






This table shows that there was a significant decrease in 1921 in the 
number of persons placed on probation and in the per cent of convicted persons 
released on probation. This decline is to be deplored in view of the increase in 
the number of persons committed for the non-payment of fines and in the face 
of the increasing public confidence in the social value of the probation system 
which is felt in other communities. As to this point the report of the New York 
City Magistrates' Court for 1920 in a discussion of the "value of effective 
probation work" contains the following statement: 

"Probation is not only the best way, but also the most economic way of 
dealing with delinquents. Every man or woman saved from a life of criminality 
is a spiritual and economic gain to the community. This "Reformatory without 
walls" saves the City a great deal of money each year and, instead of being an 
increased expense to the city, is in reality a great tax saver. The Economic 

179 



gain from improved Probation will exceed in far greater proportion the increase 
in the appropriation. Finally, if Probation saves men from further crime, it 
reclaims them from evil to good citizenship, it is, even at much, cost good 
economy in the truest sense of the word " (p. 78.) 

Statistics of Murder in Chicago 

The number of murders committed from year to year may be expected to 
afford some evidence of crime conditions in the community. It is however, 
exceedingly difficult to say how many murders have been committed in any 
one year. That is, it is difficult to say how many cases of homicide should be 
called murders, how many should be called cases of manslaughter, how many 
should be classified as accidental homicides. Sometimes this cannot be decided 
until a jury comes to a decision; but, in general, after the prosecuting officials 
have studied the evidence a reasonably satisfactory conclusion will be reached. 

When is a Murder a Murder? 

In 1920 the chief of police published in his annual report a list of 116 so- 
called "premeditated murders" in Chicago. In the same report in the statistics 
of arrests are 198 charges of murder and the Municipal Court in 1920 disposed 
of 107 hearings in murder cases. The present so-called "Chicago Crime Com- 
mission" reported 194 murders in the same year. 



TABLE XIX 

Number of Murders and Related Charges in Chicago, 1910-1920 
(From Annual Reports of Police Department) 

Number of Charges 



Year 


Murder 


Manslaughter 


1910 


61 


20 


1911 


88 


33 


1912 


170 


41 


1913 


219 


43 


1914 


229 


72 


1915 


194 


68 


1916 


193 


71 


1917 


188 


72 


1918 


134 


130 


1919 


193 


88 


1920 


198 


92 



180 












TABLE XX 

Murder and Related Cases Disposed of in the 
Municipal Court, 1910-1920 

Number of Cases Disposed of 
Year Murder Manslaughter 

1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 
1915 
1916 
1917 
1918 
1919 
1920 



TABLE XXI 

Premeditated Murders, Sentences to Hang, and 
Executions, 1915-1921 



137 


22 


116 


25 


87 


40 


103 


46 


120 


43 


100 


42 


131 


39 


107 


38 


79 


78 


135 


41 


107 


64 





Premeditated 


Sentenced 


Year 


Murders* 


to Hang* 


1915 


77 




1916 


105 


5 


1917 


91 




1918 


95 


1 


1919 


1 54*** 


4 


1920 


116 


7 


1921 


137 


1 



Hanged 11 



4 
3 

8 



♦Compiled from Annual Police Reports. 
**From Daily News Almanac 
***Race Riots 21 



The murder statistics used by the "Chicago Crime Commission" differ from 
those just given. The Crime Commission has published in its reports statistics 
of the number of murders in Chicago as follows: in 1919, 330; in 1920, 194; 
and 1921, 190.(0 



(1) The source of these statistics is not given in the "Crime Commission" reports. For further comment on this 
subject see the article on "Chicago Crime Statistids," by the present writer in the forthcoming (November) number 
of the Journal of Criminal Law. and Criminology. The articles contains the material here published with a more 
detailed discussion of some points than could be included here. 

181 



In 1917 the Illinois legislature passed a bill abolishing capital punishment, 
which was vetoed by Governor Lowden. It is significant that as a result the 
increase in the number of murders in the years following cannot be attributed, as 
it otherwise certainly would have been by many people, to the fact that with 
hanging abolished the criminal law was no longer sufficiently deterrent. The 
deterrent feature of the law has been used to the limit, and murder has still 
increased. These facts would seem indeed to reinforce the opposite theory 
that harsh and brutal punishments tend to increase rather than to prevent 
crime. 

That harsh punishments and the attending publicity tend to increase crime 
was discovered 150 years ago by Bfackstone and Bentham in the eighteenth 
century; and in the first quarter of the nineteenth century their work was 
carried forward by Romilly and Mackintosh and the younger Peel who abolished 
capital punishment for scores of offenses and established the new principle that 
crime could be more successfully prevented by an effective police system than 
by hanging or branding or mutilating the criminals. Nearly a hundred years 
have passed since Peel established that great organization known as the Metro- 
politan Police. In London, life was made safe, property protected and crime 
in general prevented by abolishing the harsh sanctions of the law on the one 
hand and substituting on the other an efficient body of police. 

It is worth while here to "recall Blackstone's statement as to the effect of 
harsh punishments, a statement that had so profound an influence upon the 
English lawyers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In a well- 
known paragraph in the Commentaries Blackstone referred to the fact that 160 
offenses were then punishable by death under the English law. Commenting on 
this, Blackstone said: 

"So dreadful a list, instead of diminishing, increases the number of offenders. The 
injured through compassion, will often forbear to prosecute; juries, through com- 
passion, will sometimes forget their oaths, and either acquit the guilty or mitigate 
the nature of the offense; and judges, through compassion, will respite one half of the 
convicts, and recommend them to the royal mercy. Among so many chances of es- 
caping, the needy and hardened offender overlooks the multitude that suffer ; he boldly 
engages in some desperate attempt, to relieve his wants or supply his vices, and, if 
unexpectedly the hand of justice overtakes him, he deems himself peculiarly un- 
fortunate, in falling at last a sacrifice to those laws, which long impunity has taught 
him to contemn. 

Statistics of Murder in London 

In the year 1920 there were in London 15 murders of persons above the 
age of one year.( i) With a population of 4,521,685, this is at the rate of 3 murders 
per 1,000,000 population, in comparison with 73 per million in Chicago. 

A further contrast between the London and the Chicago situation is found 
in the method of dealing with such cases of murder as occur. In 4 of the 15 
cases of murder in London the murderer committed suicide. In 9 of the re- 
maining cases, 11 arrests were made, and the cases were disposed of as follows: 
convicted and sentenced, 3; found insane, 5; acquitted, 1. In the case of the 



(•l) Cases of abortion arc excluded. 

182 



single acquittal, it was admitted that the person had been guilty of the homi- 
cide though not guilty of murder. There remained only 2 cases of murder in 
which the murderer was not discovered by the police. 

Contrast this situation with ours in Chicago. In 1920 there were 116 
"premeditated murders" reported by the police. In 17 cases the murderer 
either committed suicide or was killed himself. In 50 of the remaining 99 cases 
no arrests were made, and the police report actually describes 53 cases as 
"unsolved." In the 49 cases in which arrests were made, 104 persons were 
arrested. The disposition of these cases during the course of the year was as 
follows : hanged, 3 ; under sentence to hang, 5 ; sentenced to Joliet, 21 ; sent to an 
insane asylum, 1; acquitted, 17, not billed, nolle prossed, or stricken off, 32; 
pending 25. ( 2) 

Statistics of Murder in Canada 

Coming nearer home, we find statistics of murder in Canada also very 
different from our own. For the years 1918, 1919 and 1920 the total number of 
charges of murder in Canada, with the disposition, were as follows: 



TABLE XXII 
Charges of Murder in Canada, 1918-1920 

Number Per Cent Distribution 



1918 

Acquitted 23 

Detained for lunacy ... 7 
Capital sentence 19 



1919 


1920 


1918 


1919 


1920 


44 


28 


46.9 


55.7 


49.1 


7 


3 


14.3 


8.9 


5.3 


28 


26 


38.8 


35.4 


45.6 



49 79 57 100.0 100.0 100.0 



Over a period of ten years, the quinquennial averages for murder in Canada* 
were as follows: 



Percentage of Con- 
Charges Convictions Executions victions of Total 

Number of Charges 
1911-1915 61.6 25.0 12.8 40.6 

1916-1920 58.0 22.0 9.0 38.0 

*From 45th Annual Report of Criminal Staetics of Canada, p. ix (No. KM, 1921). 

(2) Data compiled from 1920 Report Chicago Police Department, p. 29. 

183 



Statistics of murder in London are especially significant in comparison 
with our Chicago statistics, since in London the policemen carried no weapon 
except "a light wooden truncheon, incapable of inflicting serious damage." ( i) 
The Chicago police, like the police in other American cities, are not only armed 
to shoot but do actually shoot and kill a very considerable number of persons 
in the course of a year. ( 2) Imitation is an important factor in the crime situation. 
Violence on the part of the police and sensational reports of violence in the 
newspapers lead to further violence and to the carrying of weapons by citizens 
who should be unarmed. 



CONCLUSION 

The facts about crime should not only be recorded with the greatest accur- 
acy, but they should be given the fullest publicity. If we are to punish 125,000 
of the members of our community in a single year, by arresting them and trying 
them in our criminal courts, if we are to punish 19,000 persons by imprisoning 
them in dark and sunless places like our own two great prisons the County Jail 
and the House of Correction, we should at least know how and why these 
men and women are being punished. As to the numbers of persons who are 
shut up during the year in the cells of our other prisons, the 37 police stations 
of Chicago, no statistics are available. In its report of 1915 the Merriam Crime 
Committee called attention to the fact that no records were available to show 
how many persons were during the year locked up in the police station cells for 
one or more nights. ( 2) The locking up of men and women in police stations may 
seem a trivial thing to those who never expect to suffer this indignity. But 
careful records should be kept and published of the number of poor persons, 
for they are literally poor persons, who do suffer in this way. At present no 
facts regarding confinement in police stations are ever published. The victims 
of the "stations," like the victims of the "third degree," remain beyond the 
count of the statistician. 



(1) Raymond B. Posdick, European Police Systems, p. 234. 

Mr. Fosdick's comment on the general attitude of the London police to the public is of interest: "The calm, 
patient, undisturbed attitude of the London constable, sometimes under circumstances of the most irritating and 
provoking nature, has become proverbial. I saw a large squad of them standing unmoved and apparently unobservant . 
when well-aimed stones were being hurled at them by a group of strikers. When ordered to charge they do so. calmly 
and deliberately. Scorning to use their truncheons, they rolled up their rubber ponchos and with these weapons beat 
back their assailants" (Ibid., pp. 234-35). 

(2) The report of the Chicago Police Department very commendably publishes a list of these police homicides, 
classified as "justifiable and excusable homicides." which are committed in the course of the year. A further dis- 
cussion of this point by the writer may be found in the Nation. March 8, 1922. pp. 286-287. and in the forthcoming 
November number of "the Journal o« Criminal Law and Criminology. 

(2) Report of the City Council Committee on Crime of the City of Chicago (1915), p. 36. 



184 






Statistical Tables 

REFERRED TO 
IN 

Dr. Kirchwey's Report. 



TABLE A-l* 
DAILY POPULATION OF THE COOK COUNTY JAIL DECEMBER 
1ST, 1920, TO NOVEMBER 30TII, 1921, INCLUSIVE 



Nnmber of days on which the population was: 


















1 650 

699 


/OO 

749 


750 
799 


S00 
849 


850 
899 


UOO 
949 


950 
1000 


1000 
1049 


Total 


. . . .1 fi 


66 


63 


45 


73 


40 


62 


10 






December 


8 


18 


5 
















January 1 


2 


1 


17 


10 


1 












February 








15 


12 


1 










March 








21 


9 


1 










April | 




3 


13 


12 


2 












May | 


13- 


17 


1 
















June 


14 


16 


















July 


| 6 


22 


3 














August 


7 


5 


9 


10 














September | 








5 


9 


16 






October | 










3 


21 


7 


November. . , 1 






4 


23 


3 



DAILY POPULATION OF THE COOK COUNTY JAIL 
DECEMBER 1, 1919, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1920, INCLUSIVE 



Number of days on which the populations was: 



Month 


I 500 
| 549 


550 
599 


600 
649 


650 
699 


700 
749 


750 
799 


S00 
849 


>50 
S99 


Total 


| 30 


154 


89 


11 


70 


12 








December 1 


5 


22 


•1 
















1 1 


15 








5 












February 1 


26 


3 


















March 


1 S 


26 
























April 


! 23 


5 


2 


















May | 


21 


10 


















June 


i 


17 


13 


















July | 1 


29 


1 




















14 


16 




























7 


5 


IS 












October 1 






2 


29 












November ' 








23 


7 









ISO 



DAILY POPULATION OF THE COOK COUNTY JAIL 
DECEMBER, 1918, TO NOVEMBER, 1919, Inclusive 

Number of days on which the jail population was: 



Month 


4oU 
499 


oOO 
549 


500 
599 


bOO 
649 


650 
699 


7 00 

749 


==== 




Total 


32 


46 


9, 


148 


38 


3 










22 


9 




















8 


18 


5 
















February 






1 


10 














Alarch s . 






12 


19 














* pril 








25 


5 








May 








14 


17 








June 








12 


15 


3 






July 


2 


19 


10 












August 






22 


9 










September 






6 


24 











October ....:.. . . 






10 


21 








November 






15 


14 


1 









DAILY POPULATION OF THE COOK COUNTY JAIL 
DECEMBER, 1917, TO NOVEMBER, 1918, INCLUSIVE 

Number of days on which the jail population was: 



Month 


i50 
499 


500 
549 


550 

599 


600 

649 


650 
699 


700 

749 


750 
799 


;v00 

849 


850 
.<-99 


Total 


3< 


49 


9 


58 


55 


48 


62 


45 


1 


December 












1 


26 


4 












January 














3 


13 


15 




February 
















6 


21 




1 


March 












2 


14 


10 


5 










April 












s 


iO 


2 








May 












16 


10 . 


5 








June 










14 


16 












July 










:>: 














August 







1 


9 


« 


13 












September 


25 




5 














October 


> 
3( 


< 


23 


















November 


) 





















*Tabulated from Jailer's Records. 



1ST 



z 

o 

mi 

H 
< 

mi 
P 
fa 

c 

« 2 



K mt 

< 1-1 



2 « 





co 




















■* 


CN 


tf< 


o 


X 




5 


S ci 














CD 

5>> 


a, cd 


■* 


m 


■* 


■* 


^ 




o 














, 














l< 

CD 
> 


is 


CN 


CD 


CD 


CD 
CO 






c 












x 


^■3 

fag 


in 


t-~ 


X 


X 


1^ 




L< 
>> 


OJ 


rt 


X 


X 


05 




o 




*-l 










1Q 

O 














is 


CO 


CD 


^< 


■* 


m 




Z 


05 


m 
o 


§£ 




^«co 
So 




*tf 




1-1 






H 


x 


L_ +=> 


t^ 


rt 


X 


CO 


X 


# 


Li 


E a 

fag 




rt 




CN 


CO 




o 


CM 


CN 


CN 


CN 


CN 


o 


^ 














q 


5.2 


O 


^ 


rt 


■^ 


■<* 


< 


,_, 


O 


O 

05 


C-x 


m 


5 m 




CO 


fc 


CN 




'"' 


'~ i 


CN 


co 


+3 


X 


CN 


m 


t^ 


X 




5>> 




CD 


■* 


05 


© 


o 




o 


fe o 


■* 


■* 


CO 


■* 


■* 




CO 

o 
















a*- 


t^ 


O 


X 


o 


t^ 




4^ 


m 


05 
05 


£® 


CD 

m 






(N 


■* 


CO 


w co 


CO 


■* 


CO 


^■8 

CD H 


CD 


X 


m 


CN 


X 




t>l 










So 




CN 


fag 


f~ 


t» 


m 


■* 




rt 


1-1 


CN 


CN 


CN 




CD 

a 
















3 s 

1-° 


CO 
O 


05 

o 

CD 


"^CN 


C5 
CN 


CN 








Li ^ 


lO 


CD 


CN 


m 


in 






CD 3 














■d 


a, °> 


CN 


CO 


05 


CD 


t^ 




0) 

s 


1-1 


tH 


1-1 


lH 


1-1 


































o 




CN 


X 


m 


•* 


CD 




G 




CN 


Scd 


■* 


wX 


Ph 


5 .a 


CN 


CN 


■* 


o 




fc 


1-1 


rH 


r " 1 


rt 


H 
















o 




t- 4 ^ 


in 


■* 


X 


m 


T)< 


o 


CD 


4) C 


t^ 


CD 


o 


CO 


CN 






X 


X 


X 


X 


X 




1* 




























is 




CN , 

05 


Sos 


m 

CO 


X 






X 


r~ 


CO 


t^ 


X 








LI'S 


CD 


H 


CO 


» 


m 






CD C 














93 


a. v 

w CD 


CO 


X 


CO 


■* 


■* 




"co 














6 

CD 


J* 


in 


o 


o 


•* 


X 




fe 


CO 


CO 


t« 


CN 


w 




CD 


[> 


m 


T* 


n< 






25 


























03 




CD 3 


*C* 


05 


r~ 


CN 


m 






fag 


CO 




CO 


m 


10 







05 


a> 


05 


05 


0> 




CCS 














*rl 
















l^i 


|s 


CN 


O 


X 


m 


■* 






CN 


05 


r~ 


CO 


CD 






o 


CN 


O 


CO 








0) 


X 


X 


X 


O 




Total 
Jail 
Popu- 
lation 


t~ 


o 


X 


05 


r>l 




m 


CN 




m 


■* 




CD 


o 


CD 


t~ 


CO 




C5 


05 


X 


X 


O 




Li 




^ 


CD 


05 


o 






d 










CN 


CN 




CD 




05 


05 


as 


05 


0! 




K- 1 

























dS 












o X 




































■3 tS 












CO ±? 












"S o 












o w 




































■S o 












° c 

B 












_ O 












5 "° 
























CO CD 












92 bo 












M M 












CO — 












•S B 












S 5 












CD CD 












U L, 












CD CD 












Li Q. 
ft " 












^ ® 












2 J3 
























„ ® 












CD Li 












5 O 












O — 












«w CD 












CD L. 












L, CD 












2 J3 












.3 3 












^3 












■-• >• 












>> L. 












Li CS 




CO 

C C8 








y summa 
ly summ 
is 2144. 




rt s 










S a 




>> 






3 












fe « 




- 




he year 
the yea 
of boy 




C V 




E 






3 cS 

CD 
71 It- 
CD ^* 

-1- CD 

cs X 
c> ^ 




3 








- 
- 
CD 




ven In t 
given in 
number 




'3 "Z 


CN 
1 


CD 


CN 

1 




CD S 

n 92 


1 


a 


■a 


'm* a 




CO > 


— 




— . ■« o 








B 




cj O -S 


/ 










rf « •£ 


~ 


cs ce 


- 


= 
> 


u 

CD 

w 


o « 

CD *> S 


■a 

R 


_c- 


5 

r 


- 


t3 cn B 
cn"§ o 




^^ 


A 




§ 


9i 

1- 


c X 
^ oc 


X 

c 

-; 


c 


— 


i-3 


ot 10(5 
1, not 1 
rested' 




P 

a - 

CD CO 
*"• co 


m 


ECJ 


■r 


c « fe 




CD 




- 


- CD ™ 





O 

a 




O 

n 


T£ C X 

CO ^i CD 

<c _ a 
o ^ .5 


1 


— X 




- 


CO — O 
W CO 




cS „ 


[6 


m 


.- 


3 .-3 

C -J 

< ™ 


| 


-t: 


E 


S 


| 


r 


i 

3 


C Pgfe 


c3 




X 


Li 


00 


<d h. a 




1 | 


>, 




>, 


L, 60 a 



r 


- 


CD 
it 


— 


Sf^z 


CO 

Li 


!»<= 


CD 


s 


CD 


C oj - 


C to 


> 


35 

ro 


> 


CD CD J; 
X CO ® 





3 CD 




li 




CD CD "O 


CL 


O Si 




fl 




£ x a 


Cv 


U h 




U 




HhS 



1SS 



TABLE A-3 
BOYS UNDER 17 YEARS OF AGE IN THE COUNTY JAIL CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE* 
JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1921 



CHARGE 




AGE (In years) 






Total 


13 


14 


15 


16 


Total 


82 


1 


2 


8 


71 








Assault to Rob 


2 






1 


1 








Bastardy 










1 








Burglary 


17 






1 


16 








Carrying Concealed Weapons 










1 








Disorderly Conduct « . . . . 


11 




1 




10 








Forgery 










1 








Larceny 


20 




1 




19 








Murder 








1 














National Motor Theft Act 












1 








Obtaining Money or Goods by False Pretense 












1 








Rape 


3 








1 


2 








Receiving Stolen R. R. Property 


1 










1 








Remand U. S 


2 








1 


1 








Robbery ... 


6 








1 


5 








Robbery with a Revolver 


4 










4 








Safe Keeping 


-4 


1 








3 








Safe Keeping U. S. A 










1 










Sodomy . . . 












1 








Violation of Prohibition 












1 








Burglar having Burglar Tools 












1 








Confidence Game, Disorderly Conduct 












1 








Larceny, Speeding 










1 







♦Tabulated from individual record cards on file in tho oflice of Warden of Jail, for year January to December 1921, 
(The Jail fiscal year runs from December 1st to November 30th. these figures, therefore will not coincide with the 
Jail Annual Report). 



189 



85 

M 
B 
ft 
£ 

B 
B 
B 

o 

H 
35 

a 



So 

3 05 

gS ' 8 

£ & 

i-nOi-h "3 

H a8 a 

gw M 3 



H 
Hb 

a 

S 
p 

B* 

o 

a 
o 

>< 

a 



OZS e 



C3B0S 

•BrH 

*B 

£B 

085 

s £ 

t«0 ■ 

a 

«B 

^o 



CM 

05 


Num- 
ber 
Boys 
Classed 
as First 
Offend- 
ers* 


1 


ce 

(N 






1 
1 


1 








1 








1 




£ 2 

05 

a a 


mco 


CO 


cr 

C5 
CM 


>o 

lO 


lO 


t 

CO 


05 


■* 


X 

01 


CM 


CD 

C 


CM 
CD 
lO 


1 

03 

CO 


CO 

1 


"is ^2 

Eh£ a 


03 

^0 


0: 

1-0 


10 

c 




to 

CM 


05 


c. 

■0- 


CM 


03 

CM 


CM 

0! 




C. 


CO 
X 

to 

CO 


tO 
CO 

CO 


CM 

CO 
CM 




CM 
0! 


Num- 
ber 
B :.ys 
Classed 
as First 
Offend- 
ers* 




CO 
IN 












1 












1 


£ 

a K 


01 




CM 


to 
■* 

CM 


to 


.03 
CM 


05 
CM 


■* 




10 

CO 


CM 

S 
CO 


03 


CM 

»o 


CM 




9 a =-2 

038° 


,--CD 

00 


CO 

[- 


10 

to 


00 

CD 

1 i-i 

r 


00 CM 
h- 1 CO 
•-1 I CM 


05 

to 
1 


CO 


>o 

tc 




CM 

05 


O 

03 
CN 


03 
lO 

IN 


X 

LO 


Num- 
ber 
Boys 
Classed 
as First 
Offend- 
ers* 


00 
to 







1 
1 




















05 

05 


£ 2 

a a 






en 

CM 


CO 

to 


1> 


O 
CM 


CO 


1> 


•0 


10 




C: 


■* 


■* 


3s^2 

S.3.8,2 


,-CM CO 

OOl H 

^CD CM 

00 


O 

05 




t-~ 


03 

CO 
CM 


CO 
10 


CM 


X 
CO 


to 

CM 


to 

X 


CO X >-< 

CO 05 1 •* 

1 


to 

OS 


Num- 
ber 
Boys 
Classed 
as First 
Offend- 
ers* 


10 
r- 




























£, 2 

O © 

a a 


05 
CM 


r~ 


05 
CM 


lO 
CO 
CM 


- 


t~ 


10 




CM 


O 

ou 

CO 


CM 




05 


to 


t^ 






.co 

-^05 


C-l 
X 

tH 


to 


CM 

05 
O 


CO 

X 


! 

CO 1 t~- 

05 03 
CM 


CO 


OS 
03 


tr 


10 


CD 
CM 


O 


05 




Num- 
ber 
Boys 
Classed 
as First 
Offend- 
ers* 


00 
05 






1 


















1 
1 


<* 
0! 


£ 2 

O 05 

a a 


10 

CD 
lO 


CM 




05 
00 

CO 




CO 


05 


t^ 


CO 


CO 
CO 


03 
CM 


CM 
03 


05 

>o 




to 




* s ^2 
hjz; H 


(SO 
^--10 

05 


CM 


10 





CM 

■* 
CM 


lO 


■* 


CO 

co 


■* 
(^ 


co 

CM 
10 


00 


10 

»o 

c. 

CO 


CO 
CO 




CO 





a 
< 

a 
a 


e 




- 
05 

~ 
3 


05 




>> 

M 

t 

B 


5 


4S 

to 

< 


05 

£ 

C 

05 
U 

a 

05 

- 

q 

c 





•p 

a 

05 

s 

2 

"n 

N 
05 

a 

a 


c 


< 


05 

a 

.-3 


>> 

c 

u 

a 


* : 
tc 

05 

'2 

_o 

C 

B 
t. 

05 

-= 
-p 

O 


* 
* 

u 


a 
te 

05 

S 

05 TJ 

j3 w 


* ' 
tc? 

05 C 


t£ 

3 
C 
05 
3 
_tS 

05 
C5 
/ 



oil 

II 

3 



£Q 



, -3 

to Qp 
•t) 05 C3 

o = iS 
c o x 

x^.2 
i-t o o 



t3 ^^; 

- 1 C 5>, 

c^ G.5V 

a cT— 



So 

OCM 



tS 3 

—•"Sn 

CJ_ 
— cS 
&*^ 

5° 



J 05 S 

tO S O "3 — - 

^ 05 Ct, ^* c 
K 5 g _ 05 3 CO 10 

ft U O (S p- (m 

otss-5o.S s 2 

atcf.sc"g * * 

= <«"* J fe^^ 

05 So^-SfloooSg^g 

^SetS-^-" — !0- a 

>;«SOC C IOSHOE 

^ £.° x-^ixxr- r 

55: j- — rt C3 , ce„ 
05 c— (-"« C.O.O p.w 

'Stcg^gMtSou.-so 
,■3 co p-cs t.pw a» c 

c-S u £5^EESEE 
2.2§-?°«SEE£E 

irtdo; r ,-&o5 m< ' 1I '! Kal 

l -'.T3 , >;~!t.t,wCMINCMCM 

4^ tfl 0,t; O 05 05 05 05 03 03 

K « M^ *Hr«HHH 

Eo Baa5£££,S 

* * csx:5 ; 5o5^'c2 



18)0 



TABLE A -5 

COOK COUNTY JAIL POPULATION PREVIOUS RECORD BY SEX 

With a division between males under and over twenty years. 
(Figures from County Jail Annual Reports) 





TOTAL 


BOYS* 


MEN* WOMEN** 


Total 1914 


9567 


1483 


7641 


533 




6941 


1098 


5476 


357 






Second Offenders 


1378 


237 


1075 


06 


Third and more Frequent Offenders .... 


1338 


148 


1090 


100 


Total 1916 


(al 
9009 


1529 


6750 


730 


First Offenders 


4938 


775 


3715 


448 






Second Offenders 


1958 


380 


1457 


121 






Third and More Frequent Offenders . . . 


2113 


374 


1578 


161 


Total 1919 


(b) 
8620 


(b) 
2110 


(b) 
5970 


540 


First Offenders • 


4312 


1068 


2885 


359 




2162 


581 


1486 


95 






Third and More Frequent Offenders . . . 


2146- 


461 


1599 


86 


Total 1920 


(c) 
7479 


2036 


«0 
52J99 


(O 
144 


First Offenders 


4660 


1230 


3399 


31 






Second Offenders 


1010 


516 


411 


83 






Third and More Frequent Offenders . . 


1809 


290 


1489 


30 


Total 1921 


(d) 
10638 


(d) 
2144 


(d) 
8015 


(dl 
479 


First Offenders 


5969 


1281 


4365 


323 






Second Offenders 


2660 


587 


1974 


105 




Third and More Frequent Offenders . . . 


2009 


285 


1676 


48 



(a) 

(b) 

(c) 



(d) 



County Jail Annual Reports do not specify, by number of times arrested, exact age, under or over twenty 

years. Reports for 1915, 1917 and 1918, not available. 
County Jail Annual Reports do not specify ages of women by number of times arrested. 
Total given in yearly summary for 1916, is 9020. 
Total given in yearly summary for 1919. is 8618; total Boys, 2111; total Men, 5967. There are noted in 

the summary "2 lost male records." 
Total given in yearly summary for 1920, is 8759; totai Men, 6299; total Women, 424. There is noted in the 
yearly summary. "1 lost female record." It will be seen that the figures for 1920 show wide discre- 
pancies when the various classifications in that year are compared. 
Total given in yearly summary for 1921 is 10.642; total Boys, 2145 (under age classification number Boys 
is 2214) ; total Men, 8019; total Women, 478. 



191 



TABLE A-6 
AGE BY NUMBER OF ARBESTS ADMITTED, BOYS IN THE COUNTY JAIL 
DUBING THE YEAB 1921* 



NUMBER OF 
A.RRESTS 


TOTAL 


l 

AGE (in years) 


ADMITTED 


Num- 
ber 


Per 

Cent 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


Not Reported 


TOTAL 


2512 


100.0 


1 


2 


8 


71 


498 


546 


458 


478 


448 


2 


1 


1488 


59.2 




1 


7 


54 


291 


333 


274 


279 


249 




2 


673 


26.8 


1 


1 




13 


138 


150 


123 


124 


123 




3 


230 


9.1 








2 


56 


34 


46 


43 


48 


1 


4 


62 


2.5 








2 


7 


18 


7 


9 


13 


1 


5 


25 


1.0 










5 


5 


3 


11 


6 




6 


15 


0.6 










i 


5 


3 


4 


2 




Over 6 


12 


0.5 






1 










4 


7 




Not Reported 


7 


0.3 












1 


2 


4 







* Tabulated from individual record cards on file in office of Warden of Jail, for year Jan.-Dec. 1921. 
The Jail fiscal year runs from Dec. 1. 1920 to Nov. 30, 1921. These figures will therefore not coincide with 
Jail Annual Report. 



TABLE A -7 
AGE BY NUMBEB OF ABRESTS ADMITTED; BOYS AND GIBLS OF JUVENILE 
COURT AGE IN THE COUNTY JAIL DURING THE YEAR 1921* 



NUMBER OF 


TOTAL 


AGE 




ARRESTS ADMITTET 






BOYS 






GIRLS 




Total 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


Total 


84 


82 


1 


2 


8 


71 


2 


1 


62 


62 




1 


7 


54 




2 


17 


15 


1 


1 




13 


2 


3 


2 


2 








2 




4 


2 


2 








2 




5 
















f> 
















Over 6 


1 


1 












Not Reported 

















* Tabulated from individual record cards on file in office of Warden of Jial. for year January-December 1921. 
The Jail fiscal year runs from December 1st. 1920, to November 30, 1921. These figures therefore, will 
not coincide with Jail Annual Report. 



1!)2 



TABLE A-8 
NUMBER OF ARRESTS ADMITTED BY CHARGE; BOYS OF JUVENILE COURT AGE IN THE COUNTY 

JAIL DURING THE YEAR 1921* 



CHARGE 



TOTAL 



Assault to Rob 

Bastardy 

Burglary 

False Pretense 

Forgery 

Larceny 

Murder 

National Motor Theft Act 

Remand, U. S 

Rape 

Robbery 

Robbery with a Revolver 

Safe-Keeping 

Safe-Keeping, U. S 

Sodomy : 

Disorderly Conduct C2012) 

Carrying Concealed Weapon (2807) 

Receiving Stolen R. R. Property (242 HA Ch. 38) 

Burglary and Having Burglary Tools 

Confidence Game and Disorderly Condyct (2012) . 

Larceny and Speeding (22 M. V. L.) 

Violation of Probation. Confidence Game 



NUMBER OF ARRESTS ADMITTED 



Total 



82 



2 
1 

17 
1 
1 

20 
1 
1 
2 
3 
6 
4 
4 



62 



13 

1 

14 

1 

2 
3 
5 
3 
3 



15 



1 



Over 6 



* Tabulated from individual record cards on file in office of Warden of Jail, for year January-December, 1921. 
The Jail fiscal year runs from December 1st, 1920 to November 30, 1921. These figures will, therefore, 
not coincide with Jail Annual Report. 



193 



PS 




k 




P5 




~ 




u 


X 


U 


pM 


K 


BS 


a 





z 


u 

pa 





PS 


h^ 


^ 






"< 


■«! 


Hs 


1-5 


X 


Z 


H 


M 


P 



z 
c 


u 


H 




N. 


z 


UQ 


w 







ft. 

DC 

M 


u 


B 


W 


►J 


Hi 


-< 


a 


Z 


H 


M 


z 


b 


c 


n 


H 


z 


ps 

ft. 




M 


s 


en 


63 




W 


'-' 


M 


a 

H 


H 


to 


~ 


C 


C 

M 


c 


£ 


NX 

H 





X 


b 



.ps a 






' o 



PS -g 



■a j. 

cS So) B 
PC o 



—. ^ a> N 



S on 

«3d 



=3 > . 



+3 a an 



re 



'*l 



I :! 



•a 
o 

CO 

to 

o 

&s 

a J 

§1 

s'-s 

t- CD 
CD to 

•S 3 

.Is 

'■§ — I 

C Q, — CJ 

£5 '3° 
.-To* 10 

~ E soc 






c--w >a e 

~ j) ° cs: 
o fc to u-a 

5*> c &c 

r- flj CD CB ~ 

- if R \£P 



■~fej 



CS C ■ 

*1&- CB 
Si -=C 



- L CD c£ '~ J ' 

o £ cjj; u «: 
"■act ca'c . 

g _ » Pfc'gf; 

"•" ?»« w o ? 

• -*s (-\ t- CB CD CJ ^ 

N n g, rf § w as o 

— £;.fi Qj 0) C 



■3: 






s o 






194 



TABLE A-ll 

COOK COUNTY JAIL— "CASES DISPOSED OF" 1914, 1916, 1919, 1921 
(Compiled from CooU County Jail Annual Reports) (a) 



DISPOSITION 


1914 


1916 


1919 


1921 


Number 


Per Cent 


Number 


Per Cent 


Number 


Per Cent 


Number 


Per Cent 


Total 


9458 


100.0 


8917 


100.0 


8736 


100.0 


10530 


100 






Discharged Without Trial 


1064 


11.3 


842 


9.5 


922 


10.6 


1621 


15 4 






No Bill — G randy Jury 


479 

41 

122 

- 113 




290 

24 
97 
65 




93 
35 
53 

35 




144 

58 

200 

105 

60 

3 




Nolle-Prossed — Criminal Court 

Stricken Off — Criminal Court 

Released on Order — Circuit Court . . 
Released on Order — Superior Court. 
Released on Order — County Court . . 
Released on Order — -Criminal Court. 
Released on Order — -IT. S. Court. . . . 




6 

37 

266 

273 




54 




6 






2.9 


312 




700 




1051 




Brought, to Trial and Found not Guilty 


16* 


1.9 


157 


l.S 


266 


2.5 


Not Guilty — Criminal Court 


273 




16* 
1438 


16.1 


157 

1607 

412 

285 

297 

237 

8 

1 

2 




266 
1?03 

283 

482 

365 

286 

12 

1 

6 

3 

1 

11 

353 




Brought to Trial and Convicted 


1649 


17.4 


18.4 


17,1 


Sentenced to County Jail (b) . . 

House of Correction 


297 
454 
137 
131 

G 




204 
380 
321 
242 

5 






Joliet Penitentiary 




Pontiac Reformatory 




Chester 




Elgin 




Kankakee 


1 










Lincoln 










Dunning 
























5 

3(0 

5742 

2.' 78 
1325 
1539 






Placed on Probation 


323 




286 










Dispositions Not Final 


6449 


6" .2 


63!- 


71.6 


65.7 


6567 


62.4. 






Disposed of in Municipal Court. . . . 
Bail Given — Criminal Court 


4173 

1445 

795 

14 

9 

13 




4110 

1444 

821 

5 






3410 
1622 
1535 
















































Transferred 






. 12 


0.1 


61 


0.7 


103 


1 








Delivered to Parole Agent 






12 




61 

4 


(c) 


103 




Abated by Death 


4 


(Cl 


2 


(C) 


3 


(c) 








1 
2 




Died in County Jail 


4 
19 


0.2 


75 


OS 


4 
24 3 


2.8 










167 16 



















(a) Reports for 1915. 1917, and 1918 are not available. The Annual Report of 1920 contains no 
tabulation of Dispositions. 

(b) Released at expiration of Sentence. 

(c) Less than one tenth of one percent. 



105 



TABLE A -12 

PRISONERS AWAITING TRIAL IN THE COUNTY JAIL ON DECEMBER 1, 1920** 
CLASSIFIED BY NUMBER OF DAYS AWAITING TRIAL AND COURT IN WHICH TRIED* 



NUMBER OP DAYS AWAITING 
TRIAL 


PERSONS AWAITING TRIAL IN 


ALL 
COURTS 


CRIMINAL 
COURT (a) 


MUNICIPAL 
COURT (b) 


FEDERAL 
COURT (b) 




N umber 


Cumula- 
tive per 
cent 


Number 


Cumula- 
tive per 
cent 


Number 


Cumula- 
tive per 
cent 


Number 




TOTAL 


587 


437 


94 


56 




Under 10. . . 


63 
28 
29 


20.4 


1 

6 

12 


4.3 


51 
18 
10 


84.0 


11 
4 

7 




10-19 T 




20-29 (1 mo) 








30-39 


61 
65 

47 


49.9 


55 
51 
44 


41.0 


4 
2 
2 


92.6 


2 
2 
1 




40-49 




50-59 (2 mo) 








60-69 


' 44 
33 
37 


69.3 


36 
29 
33 








8 
3 
4 




70-79 


63.4 


1 






80-89 (3 mo) 












90-99 


29 
23 

27 


82.8 


27 
21 
24 








2 
1 
2 




100-109 


79.8 


1 

1 






110-119 (4 mo) 








120-129 


8 
5 

8 


86.3 


8 
3 
8 












130-139 








2 




140-149 (5 mo) . . 


84.2 


















150-159 


7 
14 
10 


91.7 


3 
12 
10 








4 
2 




160-169 










170-179 (6 mo) . 


89.9 


















180-189 


5 
3 
9 
8 
1 
3 
2 
7 
4 
2 




4 
3 
8 
7 
1 

•3 
2 

•7 
4 
1 




1 








190-199 








200-224 








1 




225-249 




1 






250-274 








275-299 












300-324 












325-349 












350-374 .... 












375-399 




1 








400-424 








425-449 .... 


2 




2 












450-474 












475-499 


1 
1 
1 




1 
1 












500 and ever 












Noi, Reporter. 




1 









(a) Includes time elasping between date of indictment and trial, or in the case of persons indicted before received 
in jail, time elapsing between date of entrance and date of trial. 

(b) Includes time from date of entrance to jail to date of discharge by court disposition. 
♦Tabulated from County Jail Register. 

**The following persons in Jail on December 1, 1920 are not included in tnis table: 

Those awaiting crial and sentences to jail 101 

Those who gave bail before trial 91 

Those awaiting action G.J. no bill 17 

Those held for safe keeping for parole agent 3 

Charge- Writ ne exeat-Circuit Court discharge 1 

Still in jail on December 1, 1921 8 

220 



100 






TABLE A-13 

NUMBER OF DAYS AWAITING ACTION OF GRAND JURY FOR PERSONS IN 
THE COUNTY JAIL ON DECEMRER 1, 1920 (a)* 





PERSONS AWAITING ACTION OF GRAND JURY 


NUMBER OF DAYS 
AWAITING ACTION 


1 
TOTAL 


INDICTMENT 
VOTED 


NO BILL 




Number 


Per Cent 


Number 


Per Cent 


Number 


Per Cent 


TOTAL 


489 


100.0 


472 


100.0 


17 


99.8 


Under 5 


11 


2.3 


11 


2.3 












5-9 


40 


8.2 


40 


8.5 












10-14 -. 


133 


27.2 


132 


28.0 


1 


5 9 






15-19 


96 


19.6 


91 


19.3 


5 


29.4 






20-24 


86 


17.6 


84 


17.8 


2 


11.7 






25-29 


47 


9.6 


47 


10.0 












30-39 


44 


9.0 


42 


8.9 


2 


11 .7 






40-49 


19 


3.9 


17 


3.6 


2 


11.7 






50-59 


2 


0.4 


1 


0.2 


1 


5.9 






60-69 


4 


0.8 


3 


0.6 


1 


5.9 






70-79 


2 


0.4 


1 


0.2 


1 


5.9 






80-89 . . 


1 


0.2 


1 


0.2 












90-99 . 




























100 and over 


4 


0.8 


2 


0.4 


2 


11.7 







(a) Persons in the County Jail on December 1, 1920 not included in this table: 

Those indicted before received in jail 10 > 

Those not indicted and not awaiting action G.J 210 

(e.g. awaiting action of M. C safekeeping, et?.) Total 318 

* Tabulated from County Jail Register. 



197 



TABLE A-16 

COOK COUNTY JAIL POPULATION 
PRISONEKS UNDER SENTENCE— PRISONERS nELD 

On (he First Monday of Certain Months (Opening of Certain Criminal Court Sessions) Tabulated front 
Cook County Jail Monthly Typewritten Reports 





Total 
Jail 
Popu- 
lation 

906 


Under Sentence 




Held Pending Trial 


Marcli 6, 1922 . . . 


From 

Criminal 

and 
Munici- 
Courts 
64 


At 

Oak 

Forest 

1 


Debtors 
3 


Sen- 
tenced 
to Other 

Institu- 
tions 
30 


For 

Action 

Grand 

Jury 

81 


For 
Trail in 
Criminal 

Court 
(indicted] 

544 


For 
Trail in 
Federal 
Courts 

33 


For 

A ction 

Munici- 

Court 

150 


Writs 

Habeas 
Corpus 


Dec. 5. 1921 


988 


53 


6 






112 


610 


26 


111 












June 6. 1921 


709 


72 


25 






59 


435 


26 


92 












Dec. 6. 1920. . . . 


75 5 


77 


14 


3 




10< 


413 


61 


109 




June 7. 1920 


578 


70 


20 






46 


342 


36 


64 












Dec. 1. 1919 


607 


76 


25 


1 


32 


." 6 


2 5 


E9 


t3 




June 2. 1919 


653 


64 


1 7 


3 


9 


10 


334 


:o 


!^8 




Dec. 2. 1918 


4?6 


51 


15 




16 


49 


US 


92 


75 




June 3. 191S 


6S3 


91 




3 


18 


■50 


2:;.0 


202 


99 




Dec. 3, 1917 


777 


79 






IS 


101 


307 


119 


153 












June 4. 1917. . . . 


679 


:T 




2 


36 


91 


305 


19 


179 




Dec. 4, 1916 


657 


52 




2 


21 


100 


: 00 


23 


159 




June 5. 1916.. . . 


439 


50 




2 


21 


( 6 


1! 3 


21 


96 




Dec. 0. 1915 


520 


61 






37 


42 


225 


33 


120 


2 










June 7. 1915 


624 


65 




2 


19 


77 


3 1 9 


38 


100 


-1 


Dec. 7. 1914 


725 


57 




3 


36 


155 


260 


37 


177 




June 1. 1914 


580 


56 




v> 


30 


11" 


238 


19 


lis 





198 



TABLE A -17 

PERSONS RELEASED BEFORE TRIAL, OF THE 807 PERSONS PRESENT IN THE JAIL DECEMBER 

1, 1920, CLASSIFIED RY NUMBER OF DAYS AFTER INDICTMENT 

UNTIL RELEASE AND BY METHOD OF RELEASE* 



Number of Days in Jail After 

Indictment Before Release 

Pending Trial 



90 



Total 

Under 5 

5- 9 

10- 19 

20- 29 

30-39 

40- *o 

50-59 

60-69 

70-79 

80-89 

90-99 

100-149 

150-199 

200-299 

300-399 

400-499 

500 and over 

♦Tabulated from County Jail Register. 



Persons Released Before Trial 



Total 



Number 



23 
17 

14 
6 
7 
2 
3 

5 

1 
1 
4 
2 
3 
1 



Per Cent 



100 



25 


.6 


18 


.9 


15 


.6 


6 


7 


7 


8 


2 


2 


3 


3 


5 


6 


1 


1 


] 


1 


4 


4 


2 


2 


3 


3 


1 


1 



Bail Given 



Criminal 
Court 



50 



Municipal 
Court 



31 



15 
11 



Own 
Recognizance 



Super-Sedeas 
Bond 



1!><J 



TABLE A-18 

COOK COUNTY JAIL POPULATION PRISONERS UNDER JAIL SENTENCE 

1914 TO 1921 



Year 


Total Jail Population* 


Under Sentence 


From Criminal Court"* 


From Municipal Court*** 


1914 ' 


9657 


105 


233 


1915 




160 


155 


1916 


9020 


106 


96 


1917 




160 


S8 


1918 




167 


143 


1919 


S618 


171 


155 


1920 


£759 


237 


106 


1921 


10642 


169 


121 



♦Figures are taken from the yearly summaries of the County Jail Annual Reports. For the years 1915. 1917, 
1918, these are missing. 

** Tabulated from monthly reports of Chief Clerk of Criminal Court. 
*** Figures represent the number of cases "Disposed of" by the Municipal Court, by sentence to County Jail. 
(Tabulated from Municipal Court Reports, 8th, 9th. 10th, 11th. 12th, 13th. and 14th. Figure for 1921 furnished by 
Clerk of Criminal Records. Municipal Court). 



200 



COOK COUNTY JAIL POPULATIO 

(Compiled fror 



10 
O 
to 





1914 






1916 






Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Woi 


Total No. in Jail 


9557 


6902 


1579 


(a) 
626 


9020 


(a) 
6761 


1529 


a 

7 


Total 


7973 


6407 


703 


(a) 
863 


8861 


(a) 
6910 


791 


11 




10 


9 





1 


5 


5 











Syphilis 


165 


145 


10 


10 


89 


84 


5 




Gonorrhea 


205 


158 


31 


16 


144 


100 


32 




Tuberculosis 


508 


381 


62 


65 


. 493 


377 


92 




Heart Affected 


1397 


1144 


87 


166 


2714 


2129 


202 


3 






Lungs Affected 


2725 


2166 


263 


296 


2556 


1989 


219 


3 






General Condition Affected. .."..... 


2958 


2401 


250 


307 


2860 


2226 


241 


3 


Mentally Deficient 


5 


3 





2 











* Reports for 1915. 1917, and 1918 are not available. 

(a) 'these Figures are copied from Annual Jail Reports. Either classifications are inconsistent or, some p 



204 



TABLE A-9. JAIL DISPOSITIONS OF THE 807 PERSONS HELD IN THE COUNTY JAIL ON DECEMBER 1. 1921 

BY NUMBER OF DAYS IN JAIL 





TOTAL NUMBER OP DAYS IN JAIL 


DISPOSITIONS 


Total 




Jnder 5 


5-9 


10 — 14 


15-19 




40-59 


60-79 


80-99 


100-149 


150-199 


200-209 


300-399 


100 


JtUltn* 


\ R. 




Per Cent Number 








100.0 


807 


42 


59 


21 


23 


34 


31 


96 


118 


6S 


131 


66 


:>() 


43 


Hi 


3 


6 




10.5 


85 

17 

14 

46 

3 

2 

3 

56 

51 

404 

8 

49 

95 

1 

2 

86 

92 

65 

2 

1 

2 

1 

69 

2 

9 

57 

1 

193 

91 

31 

50 

6 

3 

2 

3 

7 








































1 


5 


2 


2 


3 

8 


2 
4 
4 






2 

•) 
6 




















8 


4 

12 
1 
1 


1 
8 










































1 


1 




























1 
























1 




1 






1 












6.9 
































1 


1 




2 


10 


12 


s 


16 


3 


1 


1 


1 








50.1 




































1 


1 






Sentenced lo County Jail 

Escaped from Jail 






1 





1 


1 
3 


7 

2 1 


1 1 


4 


11 


19 


16 




•1 

1 












1 






1 
1 


2 
2 

2 
"3 


13 
4 
15 

' ' 1 ' " 
....... 

3 

" ' 3 " 


26 
23 

17 

...... 

10 


10 

17 
S 

" 2 " 
6 


24 
26 
13 

1 
1 

" 6 
3 


4 

1 1 

7 

1 

1 
3 

1 


3 

8 

1 


2 
1 

2 " 
2 




Jolict Penitentiary 






















< 'hester 

Elgin 

Kankakee 

Lincoln 

Transferred (c) 

Delivered to Immigration inspector 

Delivered to Parole Agent 

Delivered u> tf. S. Marshall 

Transferred to W la) 

No Pinal Disposition in Jail Records (1>) (c) 


' '8.6' 
23.9 


........ 

1 
6 

"13"' 
15 

6 

' 


"4 ' " 
1 

' 36' 
11 
3 

' " 'i' ' 

1 


' ' l' ' 

10 " ' 
3 
5 


" ' 3 

' ' ' 8 

3 


1 

i' " 
10 




1 


Bail Given C. C 

Released on Own Recognizance 

Released on Supersedeas Bond 

Relator Discharged 

Still incarcerated* 









2 










1 
1 

: 


1 


' 


3 


6 



Final Disposition of the sot Prisoners Held In the County Jaii December I, 1920, Including the Disi 

of Table A-10. as Noted in Foot-Note (b). 



* Still in Jail April, 1922. 

(a) Reference to Police Department records disclosed the fact that this man was "sent to Joliet." 'Transferred 

toW merely indieatesa mistake in alphabetical paging of records, in thiscasefrom the "m's" to the"W's." 

(b) Furl her investigation of these 193 cases showed 54 discharged without trial. 66 brought to trial and found 

noi guilty, 60 brought to trial and convicted, and for 13 no sentence is recorded. See Table A-10. 



DISPOSITION 



Discharged without trial 

Brought to trial and found not guilty 

Brought to trial and convicted 

Transferred 

No Sentence recorded 

TOTAL 



Prisoners In Coin I 



Number 



1 .'i 
1 .,-> 

104 
69 
13 



Per I '>i 

ui, ,11 



17 2 
16 I 

a 

1 6 



ion 




TABLE A-14 

N PHYSICAL RECORD 1914, 

n County Jail Annual Reports) 


1916, 1920, 1921* 








1919 


1920 


1921 


nen 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


i) 
30 


8618 


5967 


2111 


540 


8759 


6299 


2036 


424 


10642 


8019 


2145 


478 


i) 
60 


5506 


4320 


815 


371 


4960 


4017 


596 


346 


5428 


4451 


628 


349 





19 


14- 


5 





72 


49 


8 


15 


76 


66 


10 








86 


75 


5 


6 


124 


75 


42 


25 


152 


134 


12 


6 


12 


286 


208 


45 


33 


283 


181 


74 


28 


301 


212 


74 


15 


24 


120 


104 


9 


7 


127 


110 


10 


7 


70 


47 


10 


13 


83 


1669 


1392 


167 


110 


1465 


1229 


158 


77 


1703 


1384 


218 


101 


48 


1142 


832 


248 


62 


101S 


817 


127 


74 


1 33S 


1129 


117 


92 


93 


21S4 


1695 


336 


153 


1871 


1574 


177 


120 


17SS 


1479 


1S7 


122 





























iriscn 


ers are cm 


mted moi 


e than on 


ce. 



















200 




204 



TABLE A-14 
COOK COUNTY JAIL POPULATION PHYSICAL RECORD 1914, 1916, 1920, 1921* 
(Compiled from County Jail Annual Reports) 





1914 






1916 






1919 






1920 






1921 






Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men. 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 


Total 


Men 


Boys 


Women 




0557 


6902 


1579 


(a) 
626 


9020 


(a) 
6761 


1529 


(a) 
730 


8618 


5967 


2111 


540 


8759 


6299 


2036 


424 


10642 


8019 


2145 


478 








7973 


6407 


703 


(a) 
863 


8861 


(a) 
6910 


791 


(a) 
1160 


5506 


4320 


815 


371 


4960 


4017 


596 


346 


5428 


4451 


628 


349 








10 


9 





1 


5 


5 








19 


14- 


5 





72 


49 


8 


15 


76 


66 


10 









Syphilis 


165 


145 


10 


10 


89 


84 


5 





86 


75 


5 


6 


124 


75 


42 


25 


152 


134 


12 


6 








205 


158 


31 


16 


144 


100 


32 


12 


286 


208 


45 


33 


283 


181 


74 


28 


301 


212 


74 


15 








508 


381 


62 


65 


. 493 


377 


92 


24 


120 


104 


9 


7 


127 


110 


10 


7 


70 


47 


10 










1397 


1144 


87 


166 


2714 


2129 


202 


383 


1669 


1392 


167 


110 


1465 


1229 


158 


77 


1703 


1384 


218 










2725 


2166 


263 


296 


2556 


19S9 


219 


348 


1142 


832 


248 


62 


1018 


817 


127 


74 


1338 


1129 


117 










2958 


2401 


250 


307 


2860 


2226 


241 


393 


2184 


1695 


336 


153 


1871 


1574 


177 


120 


1788 


1479 


187 


122 


Mentally Deficient 


5 


3 





2 



































♦ Reports for 1915. 1917. and 1918 are not available. 

(a) '1 hese Figures are copied from Annual Jail Reports. Either classifications arc inconsistent or. some priscners are counted more than once. 



TABLE A-15 
COUNTY JAIL SENTENCES CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE 1913 TO 1920 



CHARGE 




YEAR 






1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


1920 




121 


149 


129 


83 


332 


271 


184 


322 








1 






























20 


15 


24 


14 


33 


16 


35 


36 












4 


3 


4 


3 


2 


3 












12 


7 


3 


2 


3 


9 


15 


8 














1 


1 


























2 
































3 






1 


3 


3 


















2 


1 


1 




4 




1 


4 












1 




1 




2 














48 


101 


61 


38 


228 


199 


£7 


210 










1 




































1 




2 




1 


1 


























1 


































3 


9 




















3 


4 


3 






2 


4 


1 
























1 




























3 


6 




5 


5 














7 


2 


3 






1 


















1 






1 






























1 






1 


1 




















1 


1 






1 


7 




























2 






















14 


9 


8 


6 


19 


23 


9 


28 








11 


6 


13 


10 


22 


11 


9 








Robbery. Attempted 








1 


2 




2 














Robbery, Assault to Commit 






3 












Other Felonies 






1 


3 


4 















YEAI 


t 






1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


1920 


Total Felonies and Misdemeanors . 


152 


224 


178 


105 


3S0 


296 


221 


370 


Total Misdemeanors (b) -. . 


31 


75 


49 


22 


48 


25 


37 


48 


Abandonment or Non-Support of Wife or Children .... 


1 


1 


2 




2 


1 




4 


Adultery and Fornication 


3 


35 


27 


8 


5 


4 


1 


7 




Assault with Deadly Weapon . . 


10 


14 


3 


2 


11 


7 


7 


6 


Auto Operator Intoxicated . . . 
















3 


Bastardy 




2 


1 


2 


9 




2 


2 


Carrying Concealed Fire Arms. 














10 


11 


Carrying Other Concealed Weapons 














6 




Contributing to Delinquency of Children . 










3 


1 


1 


3 


Cruelty to Children 








1 










Disorderly Conduct 
















1 


Disorderly House, Inmate . . 












1 






Driving Away Horse, etc. 










1 








House of 111 Fame, Kate Adams Law 








1 










Intimidation 






1 












Obtaining Money or Goods, False Pretense 


4 


13 


4 


1 


8 


4 


4 


5 


Resisting an Officer 






2 




1 


1 




1 


Search and Seizure Law . . 














1 


2 


Selling Liquor to Minors or Drunk 






1 


2 


I 








Use of Motor Vehicle Without Owner's Consent 


1 


1 




1 


2 


1 


1 
















3 


2 




Other Misdemeanors. . 


12 


9 


8 


4 


5 


2 


2 


3 



p f # a8 ° Frrf ™^ 



203 



TABLE A-19 

PRISONERS SENTENCED TO COUNTY JAIL BY CRIMINAL COURT 
JANUARY 1914 TO MAY 1922 INCLUSIVE 

Tabulated from Monthly Reports (typewritten) of Chief Clerk, Criminal Court 



MONTH 








YEAR 










1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


1920 


1921 


1922 


Total . ... 


105 


160 


106 


160 


167 


171 


237 


169 








January .... 


9 


5 


16 


14 


14 


9 


28 


17 


17 






February 


12 


5 


10 


3 


21 


17 


27 


11 


9 






March 


6 


23 


5 


12 


17 


18 


31 


25 


9 






April 


8 


29 


10 


12 


19 


10 


16 


36 


8 






May 


7 


16 


8 


11 


18 


10 


17 


22 


30 






June 


9 


2 


8 


24 


14 


13 


37 


16 








July 


5 


4 


11 


23 


21 


11 


8 


11 








August 


7 


3 


4 


13 


7 


3 


3 


4 








September 


6 


12 


1 


3 


8 


20 


11 


6 




October 


' 12 


11 


10 


18 


9 


14 


16 


9 








November 


6 


8 


7 


9 


10 


21 


32 


6 








December 


18 


42 


16 


18 


9 


25 


11 


6 





204 



Statistical Tables 



Referred to 
— In — 



Mrs. Rich's Report 



TABLE B-l 

DAILY ARRESTS OF WOMEN IN CHICAGO IN 1921 (a) 

B> Month 







Number of days 


on which the number of women arrested varied from: 






3-5 


6-10 


11-15 


16-20 


21-25 


26-30 


31-35 


36-40 


41-45 


46-50 


51-54 


59 


63 


Totals 


7 


13 


30 


49 


62 


81 


58 


32 


17 


9 


4 


2 


1 


January 


7 


11 


9 


2 


2 


















February 






6 


6 


5 


5 


4 


2 
















March .-' 






2 


5 


iO 


11 


3 














April 






1 


6 


5 


9 


3 


2 


1 


1 


1 


1 








May 




1 


1 


2 


3 


12 


9 


2 


1 










June 








5 


7 


8 


5 


3 


1 






1 




July 






1 


1 


2 


8 


7 


6 


2 


3 


1 






August 










1 


3 


9 


7 


6 


3 


1 




1 


September 






1 


1 


5 


5 


7 


6 


2 


2 


1 












1 


5 


9 


7 


3 


2 


4 














November 






4 


10 


8 


5 


3 














December 




1 


4 


6 


5 


8 


5 


2 








.. 



(a) Tabulated, April 1922, from records of Secretary to Superintendent of Police — City of Chicago. 
Arrests for violation of traffic ordinances are omitted from this table. Since a Court summons instead of detention 
is considered sufficient in these cases, they have no relation to the problem of detention. 



TABLE B-2 
NUMBER OF WOMEN ARRESTED* IN CHICAGO 
BY MONTH 1921 





Number of Arrests of Women 




Total 


9750 




January 


303 




February 


644 




March 


754 








April 


868 




May 


879 




June 


869 




July 


1041 




August 


1180 




September 


972 




October 


852 




November 


640 




December 


742 











* Arrests for violation of traffic ordinances are omitted from this table, a court summons instead of detention 
heing considered sufficient in these cases. 



206 



TABLE B-3 
TABLE SHOWING RELATION OF CONVICTIONS OF WOMEN TO CHARGES AGAINST WOMEN 

Chicago 1011-1921 (a) 



Year 


Number of Charges Against 

Women 


Number of Convictions of 
Women in Municipal and 
Criminal Courts 


Per cent Convictions of 

Women to Charges Against 

Women 


1914 


14821 


7210 


48.6 


1915 


15026 


6880 


45.1 


1916 


11600 


3727 


32.1 


1917 


14076 


4727 


33.6 


1918 


10657 


3248 


30.5 


1919 


8701 


(c) 


(d) 


1920 


7696 


2345 


30.5 


1921 


10S57(b) 


3551 (b^ 


23.4 



(a) Figures from Annual Reports Police Department of Chicago as follows: 1914 pp. 8, 9: 1915 pp. 8. 9: 1916 
pp. 17, 18; 1917 pp. 17. 18; 1918 pp. 17. 18; 1919 pp. 15. 19, 20; 1920 pp. 17. 21' Since several charges are frequently 
placed against one individual, the number of charges against women is considerably larger than the number of women 
arrested. 

(b) Figures from unpublished records in office of Secretary to Chief of Police. 

(c) Annual Report of Police Department for 19 19 does not record the number of convictions of women in court . 

(d) The total number of charges in 1919, both sexes, was 96676 (p. 26 of 1919 Police Department Annual 
Report) ; the total number of convictions in the Municipal and Criminal Courts (pp. 19, 20) was 32461, a percentage 
of 33.6 convictions to charges. 



1207 






' 


1^ 

to 

CO 


- 






















H 










00 
10 
CM 


H 
















»H 










os 
os 

6 

10 


CO 
















N 






- 


'3 

>s 

>> 

-** 
a 

o 
D 

CO 

a 

>> 

a 

o 

t-t 
O 


OS 

6 
o 


C4 






- 




- 














OS 

os 
6 


01 
















- 


- 






OS 

t> 

6 

to 


CO 
















- 


- 


- 




OS 
lO 

6 


10 








- 






"tf 










OS 

m 
6 

CO 


- 














- 










OS 
CM 

6 

CM 


CO 


- 










CM 














OS 
10 


Ol 








rt 


- 
















T* 


CO 


- 






- 




T-l 












t~ 


- 






- 




















" 


t 


01 


IN 























CO 


■* 


CM 


CM 


W 


CM 


CO 


« 


co 


01 


- 


- 


1 

i 

( 

I 


3 
> 

3 

3 


"3 

is 



E-l 




d 

d 

CD 

> 
'3 


d 

C 
US 

> 

CO 

S3 


M 

13 

o 

4* 

as~ 
I- et 

> » 

of 




g 

-a 
c 

« 


IS 

c 


d 
d 

'3 

to 
o 


i 

■d 

as 

1 

O 




c 

c 

>c 
c 

p- 




'8 

o 

TO 

as 
o 


0) 

d 

Co 

03 


a ; 

o : 

43 . 

•0) • 
CO . 

o . 

d . 

CO . 

So 

as cm 

ce o 


d • 
as ' 

fc : 

o • 
+s> . 

■d • 
o >> 
as to 

» d 
as g 


as '. 

« : 

o • 

43 " 

•0 >> 
as u 
o o 

as c$ 

co<2 



20S 



05 



01 



00 



u c 

eg 

Ph u 



eg 
Ph o 



u c 
Pi o 



£8 







01 



Z* 

S 




K 
W 

a 
55 
» 
z 



-< - 



<e 



OS 



£8 

Ph O 



eg 
Ph o 



I +3 

eg 
Ph o 



eg 

Ph o 



(N § 

. 0> 
Sj 

o-.Z 

i-i © 

o. 
•-3 

NX 






pJ-*^-Jf-'-J-'^J-J^£. 



t- 
C 




c 
« 

C 
t 

n 
a 
> 

t. 
n 

■e 
c 




> 

1 

> 


a 
> 
■/ 

E 

w 

B. 

R 

a 
> 
c 

p 

! 

a 


•> 
> 
i 

> 


X 

B 
» 

B 

C 
> 
i" 
S> 

e 

H- 


> 
I 


> 
c 



L 

I 
» 

c 
c 
t£ 


1 

) 
J 

i 

> 
1 


a 
> 

D 

t 
S 

w 

s. 
r 
I 
S> 
if 

C 

-*- 

c 


1 


a 

> 

B 

7 
c 

» 

et 

a 
> 
c 
- 
t 

■H- 
<£ 
K 


> 

i 

1 

> 
) 


a 

> 
■j 

c 

v 

t. 

> 

If 
Tl 

c 
1 


t 


a 

> 

B 

7 
E 

V 

t- 
« 

> 
c 
if 

c 


> 

t 


8 
> 
B 

7 
c 

a 
> 
if 
u" 
c 




G. 
> 
f 

t 

C 

cr 

t 

K 

a 
> 

C 
■s 

c 

a 
if 


» 



tea: 
rt >> 
cv° 
A" 3 

O <D 

52 -a 

""5 
_ _ t* 

s o 
£ ft 

<*T3 

O e 
us: 
cj 2 

■ 

o 3 



i-n 

cSOl 

e , 

Q «2 

- r 

— - 
O 3 

&H.SP 



» — 

I* ^ 

e . 

«2 

3 

a .. 

Ceo 



i 8 






209 



TABLE B-9 

NUMBER OF DAYS OF EACH MONTH ON WHICH SPECIFIED 
NUMBERS OF GIRLS 18 TO 21 YEARS OF AGE WERE ARRESTED 
CHICAGO 1921* 









Number of 


Arres< 


s of G 


iris 18 


to 21 


Years of A£e 











1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


Total 


24 


52 


76 


68 


60 


30 


22 


14 


12 


3 


3 


1 


January 


10 


3 


7 


6 


3 








1 




1 




February 




5 


7 


2 


3 


3 


3 


2 


2 


1 






March 


2 


4 


8 


6 


6 


3 


1 


1 










April 


1 


3 


5 


7 


8- 


2 


1 




2 




1 




May 


1 


4 


7 


8 


5 


4 


2 












June 




8 


4 


2 


6 


3 


3 


3 


1 








July 


1 


6 


5 


5 


9 


1 


3 


1 










August 


1 


2 


6 


7 


5 


2 


2 


2 


3 


1 






September 


3 


3 


7 


3 


5 


4 


2 


1 






1 


1 


October 


1 


6 


5 


6 


4 


1 


2 


3 


2 


1 






November 


3 


3 


11 


5 


2 


4 


2 














1 


.5 


4 


11 


4 


3 


1 


1 


1 









♦Tabulated from records of Secretary to Superintendent of Police, City of Chicago. 



210 



TABLE B-8 

GIRLS UNDER 18 YEARS ARRESTED IN CHICAGO 
BY MONTHS 

1921* 









Age of Girls Arrested 






Total 


14 years 


15 years 


16 years 


17 years 


Total 


53 


1 


5 


12 


35 






January ... 


2 








2 






February 


5 


1 




1 


3 






March 


5 




1 


1 


3 






April 


2 








o 






May 
















.TlJTIfi 


5 






2 


3 






July 


4 








4 






August 


11 




3 


3 


5 






September 


11 






2 


9 






October 


4 




1 


1 


■> 






November 


3 






1 


2 






December 


1 






1 









♦Tabulated from individual record cards in office of Secretary to Chief of Police. 



211 



TABLE B-6 

WOMEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL CLASSIFll 

1914, (a) 1916, (b) 1919, (b) 19201 







1914 


Colored 
Women 


1916 




Age Groups 


To 


tal 


White 
Women 


Total 


White 
Women 


Colored 
Women 


Total 




Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Perce 


Total 


035 


100.0 


486 


149 
15 
£2 
42 


730 


100.0 


546 


184 


540 


100. ( 


Under 2 1 years 


114 


17.9 


99 


£0 


11.0 


66 


14 


86 


16. ( 


21 to 30 years 


284 


44.7 


202 


328 


45.0 


216 


112 


268 


49. ( 


31 to 40 years 


143 


22.6 


101 


171 


23.4 


139 


32 


120 


22.1 


41 to 50 years 


68 


10.7 


60 


8 


122 


16.7 


99 


23 


46 


8.; 


Over 50 years 


26 


4.1 


24 


2 


29 


3.9 


26 


3 


20 


3.' 



(a) Taken from table "Statistics Cook County Jail" in the Institutional Quarterly of March 31,1 

(b) Taken from Jailer's Annual Report. (Typewritten.) Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 19181 



TABLE It- 1 



NUMBER OF WOMEN IN THE COUNTY .TAIL BY CAUSE AT OPENING OF CRIMINAL COURT SESSIONS 

December 6, 1919 to April 5, 1022 (a) 







Mar. 


Feb. 


Jan. 


Dec. 


Nov. 


Oct. 


Sepv. 


Aug. 


July 


June 


May 


Apr. 


Mar. 


Feb. 


Jan. 


Dec. 


Nov. 


Oct. 


Sept. 


Aug. 


July 


June 


May 


Apr. 


Mar. 


Feb. 


Jan. 


Dec. 




3. 


0. 


6. 


2. 


5. 


8, 


3, 


6, 


1. 


c. 


11. 


3, 


4, 


7. 


7, 


3, 


6, 


1, 


4, 


6, 


2, 


5, 


7, 


3. 


9, 


1, 


2. 


5. 


6. 




11)22 


1022 


1922 


1922 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1921 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1920 


1919 


Total in Jail . . 


32 


34 


27 


29 


29 


27 


25 


21 


10 


19 


18 


16 


18 


14 


21 


20 


23 


9 


9 


10 


14 


20 


20 


19 


18 


15 


16 


12 
4 


14 


Awaiting Trial 
on Indictment 


21 


20 


11 


18 


» 


13 


8 


9 


5 


9 


7 


3 


5 


4 


10 


9 


6 


3 


6 


5 


6 


12 


11 


11 


11 


6 


7 


6 






























































Grand Jury 


4 


3 


5 


2 


3 


- 


6 


6 


1 


1 


3 


4 


3 


3 




1 


6 


2 


1 


1 





1 


5 





2 


1 


3 


3 


2 


Awaiting action 




























































Municipal Ct . . 


6 


8 


8 


9 




11 


8 


5 


6 


6 


5 


5 


5 


4 


4 


5 


6 


4 


1 


3 


5 


4 


2 


5 


3 


6 


5 


3 


4 


Total held pend- 




























































ing Ct- action. . 


31 


31 


24 


29 


2 ' 


26 


22 


20 


12 


16 


15 


12 


13 


11 


16 


15 


18 


9 


8 


9 


11 


17 


18 


16 


16 


13 


15 


10 


12 


Serving Jail Sen- 




























































tence 


1 


3 


3 





2 


1 


3 


1 


4 


3 


3 


4 


5 


3 


5 


5 


5 





1 


1 


3 


3 


2 


3 


2 


2 


1 


2 


2 



(a) From County Jail Monthly Report. 



JD BY AGE AND COLOR 

(b) 1921, (bl 



919 


1920 


1921 


at 


White 
Women 


Colored 
Women 


Total 


White 
Women 


Colored 
Women 


To 


ial 


White 
Women 


Colored 
Women 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


i 


380 


160 


424 


100.0 


344 


80 


477 


100.0 


337 


140 


) 


67 


19 


83 


19.6 


72 


11 


71 


14.9 


54 


17 


► 


181 


87 
36 


228 


if 

53.8 

i 


177 


51 


249 


52.2 


172 


77 


: 


84 


68 


16.0 


59 


9 


108 


22.6 


73 


35 


' 


36 


10 

8 


29 


6.8 


23 


6 


38 


8.0 


28 


10 


■ 


12 


16 


3.8 


13 


3 


11 


2.3 


10 


1 






1916, page 46. 
are not available. 





















TABLE B-20 

TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF WOMEN CONVICTED OF FELONIES / 
MUNICIPAL AND CRIMINAL COURTS BY OFFENS1 
CHICAGO 1920* 


FELONIES 


Eh 
O 




i 

1 

I 
\ 

— 


3 
o 

03 

> 

CD 

| 

D 
2 


cS 

■0 

ca 

4^ 
CI 

D 

a 

CD 

'n 

N 

a 


>> 

u 

o 

M 


2 


to 

p, 
'3, 
a 

(8 

PI 

2 


£1 

6 
u 

(3 

h5 

d 
a 
ca 

o 
62, 
ts'3 


■a 

0) 

ft 

a 

a> 

«j 
>> 

a 

<D 
O 

t- 
t8 


<B 

O 

to 
to 

_o 

"3 

<5 


Li 

a 

+3 

M 

1 
"to 

a 

c3 
1 


O 

4^ 
4^ 

CO 

CO 

< 

3a 
as 


l. 

CD 

Q, 

o 
u 

PL, 

PI 

CD 
O 
03 

> 
O 

CD 
P5 

30 


>> 

u 

CD 
Xi 

X> 

o 
« 


o 
ft 

c3 

a 
■e 

s 

o 

42 

■s « 

CD'S 


o 

'3 
o 

Ll 
CD 

43 

o 


o 

& 

Pi * 

a' s 

p£5 CD 


d 

§«= 

TO O 

CD o 

3g 
d o 

38 


4^ 

3 

c3 
to 

< 


>> 

L< 
CD 
4^ 

PQ 
d 
a 

cS 

3 
tS 
w 
to 

< 


■3 

cs 

CD 



XI 

43 

$■£■ 

<p 

35 


•a 

CD 

"3 

CD 
O 
PI 

o 

O, 

a ' 

'Si" 

06 

3 
1 





1 


l 


606 


1 


1 


3 


3 


2 


1 


1675 


1 


1 


20 


9 


1 


1 


1 




330 




1 






8 


2 


1 






917 


1 


22 






3 


6 


" 


1 






1 


l 


86 


1 






1 


2 


16 


1 








296 




8 






3 


13 


2 




















4 






























17 






1 
































13 
































19 












1 


























1 
































2 






































1 


























1 






2 








































3 


































8 






1 














— 




















3 


















1 














9 








































32 


















1 














29 








































































3 












- 






1 


— 


■ 


















3 


































9 






































































1 












— 





























3 


































15 
















■ 


















2 


































22 














1 






• 


















19 


































28 














2 


4 




[_ 


















11 


































36 










1 


1 


2 




r 


















3 


































5 




















. 


















62 








1 










3 










1 


163 






6 






4 


4 




■ 


















































4 




















■ 


















13 


































47 














4 


4 






















1 


































2 






































2 


































12 




















i 


















9 
































17 . 












1 






















5 


















1 












1 1 12 
















1 


















ment. City of Chicago, 1920. p. 21. 



TABLE H-0 

WOMEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL CLASSIFIED BY AGE AND COLOlt 
1914, (a) 1916, (b) 1919, (b) 1920, (b) 1921, (bl 





1014 




1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Ak<" Groups 


Total 




1 lolorad 

\\ 'linen 
1 V.t 

16 

^2 
12 
8 

2 


Total 


While 

(Vomer 


Colored 
Women 


Total 


White 
Women 


Colored 
Women 


Total 


White 

Women 


Colored 
Women 


Total 


White 

Women 






Number 


Percent 


Women 


Number 


Per cenl 


Number 


Percent 


Number 


Per cent 


Number 


Per cent 


Women 




OSS 


kid 


IMI 


730 


100 


646 


184 540 


1 00 


360 


1(50 


424 


100 


344 


80 


477 


100.0 


337 


140 






Dnder 21 yen:, 


1 ! 1 


17 B 


00 


; () 


1 1 


66 


I I 
112 


86 


16.0 


(17 


19 


83 


19.6 


72 


n 
51 

9 


71 


14.9 


54 


17 


21 III SO VCMI'S 


284 


1 1 1 


202 


328 


16 (i 


21li 


208 


19 g 


181 


87 


228 


i 


177 


249 


52.2 


172 


77 


81 u< ki yearn 


I IS 


22 


101 


171 


28.4 


189 


32 


120 


22.2 


84 


36 


68 


10.0 


59 


10s 


22.6 


73 


36 


1 1 in .so years 


08 


in ! 


B0 


1 23 


16.7 


98 


23 


li'. 


8.5 


30 


10 


29 


6.8 


23 



3 


38 


SO 


28 


10 


Over 50 yearn 20 1 i i 


2 1 


ill 


8.0 


20 


8 


20 


8.7 


12 


8 


10 


8.8 


13 


11 


2.3 


10 


1 



u Token from cable tatli clca Cook Count] Jail" In the Institutional Quarterly of March 31, 1910, page 40. 
'in Taken from Jailer') Vnnual Report, (Typewritten.) Reports for years 1918, 1917, and 1918 are not available. 



TABLE B-10 
TABLE SHOWING AGE OF WOMEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL, CLASSIFIED BY CHABGE 

Jnnunry, 1921 to December, 1921* 



Charge 



Age 



Abortion 

Accessory after the Fact 

Adultery 

Allowing Female under 18 to live in House of Prostitution .... 

Assault ana Battery 

Assault to Kill 

Assault to Murder 

A ssault with Deadly Weapon 

Bigamy 

Burglary 

Burglary. Attempt to Commit 

Confidence Game 

Conspiracy 

Conspiracy to Rob 

Contempt 

Contributing to Delinquency of Child 

('rime Against child 

Debl 

Delinquency 

Disorderly Conduct (a) 

Dlsorderlj Reuse, Inmate of (Municipal Ordinance 20.9). . 
Extortion by Threats 

Forgery 

Fornication 

Harrison Act 

J louse of 111 !•' .'inie. I m mites of (Municipal Ordinance 20151 . . 

House of I ill Came, Keepers of (Illinois Statutes (57 ch i s ) 

House of III Fame, Kate Adams Law (Illinois Statutes (57 
eh :!x, 

Imprisonment for Non-Payment of Fines (h) 

Larceny 

Malicious Mischief 

Manslaughter 

Manslaughter, Accessory to 

M urder 

Murder, Accesoory to 

National Prohibition Act 

Obtaining Money or Goods by False P.e'.ense 

i Ihtaining Food and Board by Fraud .■ 

Pandering 

Perjury 

Receiving Stolen Property 

Refusal to Pay Vehicle Rent 

Remand 

Revenue Act 1918 

Robbery -. 

I obbery, Accessory to 

Robbery'Attempted 

Safe-Keeping 

Solciting for Prostitution 



Total 



abortion, Disorderly Conduct. 

Assault In Kill. Carrying Concealed Weapons. Illegal Use of 

I' ire- A nns 

Assault to Kill, Disorderly Conduct '. . 

Assault to Murder, Larceny 

A.ssauit w it h Deadly Weapon, Disorderly Conduct 

AssauL, with Deadly Weapon, Fornication 

Assault witli Deadly Weapon. Larceny 

\i tempted Burglary, ((ambling, Fraudulent Removal of 

\\ arehouse (ioods 

Attempted Larceny. Larceny. Disorderly Conduct 

Burglary, Disorderly Conduct 

Burglary, Receiving stolen Property 

Confidence Game, Conspiracy 

( lonfldence Game, Disorderly Conduct 

Confidence Game False Pretense 

Disorderly Conduct. Indecent Exposure 

Disorderly Conduct, Disorderly House Inmate of 

Disorderly House, Inmate of; Larceny 

Disorderly House. Inmate of: Receiving Stolen Property . . . ' 

Larceny. ;i charges under Search and Seizure Act 

Remand, Safe-Keeping 

No Rerort 



1 



13 



31-35 3G-40 





2 


is 
1 


9 


1 

1 

2 


2 
1 

2 



Over 
60 



No 
Report 



"Tabulated from the Jailer's Card Record File. 

(a) Including one charge of Disorderly conduct under South Park Ordinance 66. 

(b) Under South Park Ordinance 78. 



TABLE B-20 

TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF WOMEN CONVICTED OF FELONIES AND MISDEMEANORS IN THE 
MUNICIPAL AND CRIMINAL COURTS BY OFFENSE AND NATIVITY 
CHICAGO 1920* 



FELONIES 


►J 
«! 

Eh 
O 


MISDEMEANORS 


Nativity 


< 
£-1 


H 


a 
o 
'+3 
o 


» 


•a 


ft 

a 

3 

m 


o 

a 
a 


o 



1 

•0 
(C 







2 
a 
5 

> 

9 
| 

c 




J 

•a 
a 
<e 

a 

a 


0) 

bo 

o 


to 

.a 
a, 
n 

a 

a 


a 
u 

S3 

•3 

a 

C3 
CO 'el 


•a 

to 

ft 

a 

ID 

a 

CD 
V 

c5 


Hi 

"3 

i 

.2 


1 


o 

< 

Is 


0) 

ft 
o 

Li 

Ch 

a 

CO 
o 

> 

© 

PS 


,B 
O 


o 

ft 

c 
•a 

£ 

p 

al 


'5 
p 

© 
Eh 

(B 
+^ 

o 


p 
ft 

3 

°?S 

-j a 

II 

SO 
I 8 


•a 

a c 

So 

>>" 
eg 

§1 

So 


3 
ce 

< 


© 
H 

m 
■a 

a 

d 

3 

< 


■3 

ce 
© 

Q 
JS 

£p 

3 ft 
ce rt 


•a 

© 

"c3 

© 
O 

a 
p 

0„ 

a ! 
£■§ 

b o 


■a 

© 

u 

a 

6§ 
s ft 

"£ 

C? 


pi 

a 

© 
3 
CT 

B 

5 

o 
43 2 

P 


"3 

a 
■a 
< 
p 
+^> 
>> 
*© 
g 
o 


a 
© 

u 

•a 
3 

O 
o 

43 

>, 
43 

"© 

3 
u 
D 


43 

3 

•a 
a 
p 

o 

j} 
"H 

•a 
o 

O 

944 

491 


©" 
1 

w 

JSo 
©£ 
•ate 

sa 

.SS B 

D'" 
249 
142 
78 


p 

*■ o 
bS 

Jj 

7 


o 

br, o 

a& 

2 


of 

a 

<e 

?! 

p 5 

t£ 

20 

11 


a 

i3 

=M P 

o <s> 

I! 

4 


a £ 
5a 

^ <e 

z< 

p ce 
XV 

66 

£5 

3 


fi 

P 

te 
2 

| 

3 


w ® 

•a u 

O B 
p <D 

C5| 
p£ 
>.« 

OP- 

4= TJ 
■°£ 

13 

12 


B 

o 

2« 

a ^ 
1 
1 


o 

B 
o 

B 
ce 

to 

.g 

« 
3 


+3 
P 

£ 
<2 

b£ 
B 
3 E 

o o 

11 

00 43 

56 
E9 


>. 
O 

3 

1 


o 

c 

SI 

°£ 
§| 

s* 

.2 a> 
S6 


(0 

u 

'S 

CO 
X) 

a 

U 
□Q 

9 

1 


o 

g 

1 

•a 
8 
% 

h 

a 




Total 


070 


1 


:i 


2 


10 


2 


1 


2 


i 


OOfi 


1 


l 


1 


3 


30 


3 


2 
1 


1 


1675 


1 


38 
22 


1 


20 
3 


35 
6 


3 

1 


1 
1 


54 
33 


1 

1 


1 


54 








359 




3 


2 


!l 


1 


1 


1 




330 




l 






8 


2 




917 


1 






1 






22 














American if -olored), . 


110 










1 




1 


i 


86 


1 




1 


2 


16 


1 






296 




8 






3 


13 


2 






6 






138 


7 


1 


6 


1 






1 






1 


L6 














3 




4 


















4 


















17 




1 
















1 








13 


1 






















- 


- 






- 


- 




— 










IS 


















13 


















19 










1 
















16 






























2 




1 


















1 


















2 














— 
















2 






























































2 


















1 


















2 




















2 


























































:; 


















3 


















8 




1 


























5 


2 




























































4 


















3 










1 








9 






























. .3. 


..2. 












1. 




2. 












































33 


















32 










1 








;9 






















1 








24 


2 


















2 








































Greek 






































3 














1 








" ' 






1 


1 






























































:i 


















3 


















9 






























6 


1 




















































., 






Hollanders 






































1 






- 


















































































3 


















3 


















15 




























11 






















































4 












2 


















2 


















22 










1 


















18 


1 










1 






1 












































19 


















19 


















28 










2 


4 








3 








10 


1 
















2 






























4 
1 


., 










11 


















11 


















36 






1 


1 


2 








2 








25 


1 










1 












































3 


















3 


















5 


























3 


2 


































































68 


1 
















62 




l 






3 






1 


163 




6 






4 


4 








6 






1 


113 


4 




















3 






















4 


3 


15 














.. 




























4 




























2 


2 


















2 






































13 


















13 


















47 










4 


4 








2 




• 




27 


7 






1 










































1 


















1 


















2 




























1 
























- 


































•> 


















2 


















12 




























12 














































g 


















9 


















17 










1 


















12 


1 
















1 














2 
























7 








1 










5 






— 




1 








12 












1 
















9 


1 




































_J.J 


_1_ 








1 



♦Figures from Annual Report Police Department, City <>f Chicago, 1920. p.. 



JSD MISDEMEANORS IN THE 
i AND NATIVITY 



MISDEMEANORS 



■a 

a 

a 

o 

1 C 

G 

! O 

• - 

cd 

: & 
, c 


s 



a 

d 
© 


O 

a 
© 

a 1 
_g 

5 

o 

Oo 


00 

a 
■a 

< 

o 
!>> 

Q 


a 

ID 
U 
T3 

o 

o 

4^ 

i» 
-p 

"3 
s 

J-i 

a 


-P 

•C 

fl 

o 

O 
>> 

u 

CD 

■d 

t- 
O 

K 

S 

944 
491 


cd" 

1 
W 

SS 

sa 

b M 

249 

142 


CD 

9 

o 
X 
M 
C 

S 



O 
o 
id 

£ 


CD 
3 

o 

SCO 

B o 

ri CD 


£ 

ct 

ft 

c 

<D 

<I. 

c 
tr 



o 

£ 
c 


a 

c8 
ft 

CM O 
CD CD 

CD 


5a 
°l 

o< 

O c8 

66 

55 

3 


C 

_o 

43 

£8 

■a 

1 

4= 


CO CD 

o c 

O CD 

OS 
l»» 

CD,£ 

C cS 
^ S 
2| 


C 

K 

O 

cfl 

<D 

O 
& 


CD 

- 


Li 

CD 
O 

o 

e 

cS 
tic 
a 

■43 

CO 

CD 


43 

CO 

o 

Eh 

ft 

a 

be 

CI 

<J o 
Op 


>> 
o 

e 

c3 

to 
> 


= 

s 

'■5 

6 

C*H 

o 

d 

c 
'-3 


> 

8( 


X 

s 

£ 

CD 

> 

C 

c 
S 

ti 

-~ 

r 


CD 
b 

'3 
m 

■a 

1 

u 

t8 



m 


00 

CD 

a 

CD 

•a 

CO 

§ 

CD 

Si 

O 


1 


54 
33 


1 

1 


i 


7 


2 


20 
11 


4 
1 


3 


13 


1 
1 


3 


56 
E9 


3 

1 


9 


54 


1 










1 


2 


> 


1 


22 






6 










138 


78 


7 


1 


6 


1 






1 








16 














3 






1 

• 










13 


J 
































1 


































16 








— 


— 


























— 


— 














2 
















2 
















































2 




































































— 




5 


2 


































































. .3. 


. .2. 












i . 




*■ 


























1. 


















1 










24 


2 


















2 




















































1 


1 












- 


























































6 


1 




















































2 






































































1 


- — 














11 






















































4 












IS 


1 










1 






1 




































3 










10 


1 
















2 






























4 


2 






2 










25 


1 










1 




































1 


2 
















3 


2 
























































6 






i 


113 


4 




















3 






















4 


3 


15 
















2 


2 


















2 




































2 










27 


7 






1 


























































1 








































1 


























12 




















































- — 


— 












12 


1 
















1 














o 


















' 










9 


1 














































1 

























TABLE B-ll 
WOMEN IN COOK COUNTY JAIL, CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE 
1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 
(Compiled from the Jailer's Annual Report*) 









Year 




Charge 


1914 


1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Total 


654(a) 


725(b) 


530(c) 


421(d) 


446(e) 






2 
5 
1 

19 
2 

19 

io 

9 

S 
10 

7 
4 
1 
1 

10 
2 
1 

i 

23 

143 

3 

1 

2 

23 

18 
1 
1 

if3 
21 

i 

10 
275 

4 


2 

ii 
'■i 

5 
4 
10 
3 
3 

' i 

22 

i 

2 
1 

20 

i 

120 
1 
1 

32 

9 
4 

io 

13 
1 

14 

422 

1 

'7 


'2 

'8 
2 
1 

11 
9 

i 
1 

27 
7 
7 
2 
1 

8 

5 
3 
4 
6 
1 

179 
3 
1 

6 
3 

1 

1 

21 
26 

14 
163 

6 


4 
2 
1 

4 

5 
7 
1 

46 
18 

5 

3 

'2 
1 

' i 

2 
4 

136 
1 
3 

7 
3 

1 ' 
4 

' i 
11 

18 
2 

i 

23 
100 

i 
3 




Accessory to Murder .... 


3 


Accessory to Rape 




Adultery 


4 










Assault and Battery . 




Assault to Murder 


12 


Assault to Rob 




Bastardy 




Bigamy 


2 




R 


Confidence Game 


31 


Conspiracy 


1 


Contempt 


1 


Crime against Child . . 




Crime against Nature .... 


i 


Delinquency of child . . . 


3 


Delivery of Child 




Disposing of Mortgaged Property . . 


1 


Debt 




E mbezzlement 




Forgery 


A 


Fornication .... 


3 


Fugitive 




Kidnapping 




Malicious Miscmef . . 


127 
5 


Manslaughter 




Mayhem 




Murder 


3 


Murder by Abortion . . . 




Obtaining Money or Goods, False Prentence 

Pandering 


2 
1 


Perjury 


2 


Rape 




Receiving Stolen Property . . . 


14 


Robbery 


20 


Safekeeping .... 


12 


Threats 




Violation of Parole . . . 




Violation U. S. Statutes 


s 


Violation Municipal Code . 


150 


Vagrancy 




Violation National Prohibition 


4 


Miscellaneous .... 


12 



* Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918, not available. 

fa,! Total niimhpr rPCpivPf> a^nrrliim +r\ f-iKlja "*»«rc« ' in ya-i-n-vr.*- 



"Annual Keports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918, not available. 

(a) Total number receivea, according to table "age ' in report, as published on page 46 of the Institution Quar- 
terly for March 31, 1916, is 635. 

(b) "Total number received," according to report, is 730. 

(c) "Total number received/' according to report, is 540. 

(d) - Total number received," according to report, is 424. 

(e) Total number receivea. ' according to report, is 478. 



216 



TABLE B-12 
TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF WOMEN ARRESTED IN CHICAGO DURING TnE YEAR 1920 

BY AGE AND CHARGE* 



Felonies 



Total 

Abandonment of child under 1 year 

Abortion 

Arson 

Bigamy 

Burglary 

Burglary, Accessory to 

Burglary Attempted 

Confidence Game 

Conspiracy 

Crime vs. Child 

Embezzlement and Larceny by ... , 

Forgery 

Kidnapping 

Larceny and Larceny by Bailee . . . 

Larceny by Pickpocket 

Larceny of Automobile 

Larceny Accessory to 

Larceny Attempted 

Malicious Mischief 

Manslaughter 

Murder 

Murder, Accessory to 

Murder, Assault to Commit 

Pandering 

Perjury 

Rape 

Receiving Stolen Property 

Robbery 

Robbery, Accessory to 

Robbery, Assault to Commit 

Threats to Kidnap or Murder 

Other Felonies 



Total 



1266 



2 

18 
4 
9 

13 
3 
2 

37 
6 
2 
6 

10 

2 
930 
1 
1 
3 
1 
7 
4 

15 
7 

19 
5 
3 
1 

92 

19 
7 
2 
6 

29 



■Age 



Under 
16 yr. 



16-20 
incl. 



190 



3 

159 



21-25 
incl. 



310 



1 
5 
3 
1 
1 
9 
1 
1 
2 
4 
2 
239 

i 



26-30 
incl. 



285 



215 
1 



4 
1 
3 
1 
1 

27 
4 
1 
1 
1 
4 



31-35 
incl. 



171 



118 



14 
3 

i 

1 

4 



36-40 
incl. 



130 



1 
1 

2 

1 

14 
2 
1 

i 

9 



41-45 
incl. 



71 



3 
i 
3 

40 

i 

3 

3 
1 
1 
1 



46-50 
incl. 



64 



42 



51-55 
incl. 



18 



56-60 
incl. 



15 



Over 
60 y 



Misdemeanors 



Total 

Abndmt. or Non-Sup. of Children 

Adultery and Fornication 

Assault 

Assault and Battery 

Asault with Deadly "Weapon 

Carrying Concealed Fire-Arms . . . 

Other Concealed Weapons 

Contrib. to Delinquency of Children 

Cruelty to Animals . . . . 

Cruelty to Children 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly House, Inmate of 

Gaming House, Inmate of 

Gaming House, Keeper of 

House of Iill Fame, Inmate of 

House of 111 Fame. Keeper of 

House of 111 Fame, Kate Adams Law 

Intimidation 

Loitering 

Obt. Money or Goods, False Pre. . . . 
Opium Don, Inmates or Keepers . . . 

Peddlers License 

Resisting an Officer 

Solciting for Prostitution 

Vabrancy 

Violation of Traffic Ordinances 

Search and Seizure Law 

Other Misdemeanors 



Total 



6201 



5 

139 

2 

51 

109 

9 

2 

110 

1 

1 

3652 

975 

12 

10 

68 

26 

238 

2 

16 

33 

2 

1 

4 

UP 

7 

214 

19 

347 



Age 



Under 16-20 21-25 
16 yrs. incl. incl. 



480 



1 
24 



11 



286 

83 

2 



6 
1 

II 

1 

IP 



1567 



2 

47 

io 

31 
2 
1 

32 



709 

415 

2 

2 

35 

2 

100 



70 
2 

52 
2 

38 



26-30 
incl. 



31-35 36-40 
incl. incl 



1415 



2 
33 

1 
12 
31 

4 

26 



803 

238 

3 

2 

16 

6 

68 

'4 
6 



1 
42 

1 
54 

3 
. c 9 



954 



22 

9 

14 

1 

14 

1 

1 

605 

104 

3 

4 

11 

10 

28 

2 

4 

4 



1 
13 

1 
38 

64 



788 



528 
73 
1 
1 
3 
2 
14 



34 

6 

C7 



41-45 
incl. 



431 



315 
26 



5 
1 

11 
3 

3*> 



46-50 
incl. 



288 



194 
16 



1 
1 

6 

3 

42 



51-55 
incl. 



125 



56-60 
incl. 



Over 
60 yrs. 



96 



101 
6 



53 



70 

10 

1 



39 

4 



♦Figures from Annual Report Police Department, Chicago 1920, p. 16. 



217 



TABLE B-13 
NUMBER OF TIMES WOMEN IN COUNTY JAIL ADMIT HAVING BEEN ARRESTED 

1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 
(Compiled from Jailer's Annual Reports*) 



Number of 

arrests admitted 


19 


14 


1£ 


16 


1919 


1920 


IS 


21 


Number 


Per 
Cent 


Number 


Per 

Cent 


Number 


Per 
Cent 


Number 


Per 
Cent 


Number 


Per 
Cent 


Total 


533 


100.0 


730 


100.0 


540 


100.0 


144(a) 


100.0 


479(b) 


100.0 






1 


367 


68.8 


448 


61.4 


359 


66.5 


31 


21.5 


323 


67.4 


<> 


66 


12.4 


121 


16.6 


95 


17.6 


83 


57.6 


10S 


22.6 






3 or more 


100 


18.8 


161 


22.0 


86 


15.9 


30 


20.9 


48 


10.0 



*Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917. and 1918 are not available. 

(a) "Total women" given in yearly summary for 1920 is 424. But there is noted "One Lost Female Eecord. ' 
Other inconsistencies will be noted, in comparing totals of the various classifications. 

(b) "Total women" given in yearly summary for 1921 is 478. 



218 



TABLE B-14 

TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF ARRESTS ADMITTED, CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE. WOMEN IN 

THE COUNTY JAIL Dt RING THE YEAR WMABY TO DECEMBER 1921 



Charge 



Total . 



Abortion 

Accessory After the Fact 

Adultery 

Allowing Female Under 18 to Live in House of 

Prostitution 

Assault and Battery 

Assault to Kill 

Assault to Murder 

Assault With Deadly Weapon 

Bigamy 

Burglary 

Burglary, Attempt to Commit 

Confidence Game 

Conspiracy 

Conspiracy to Rob 

Contempt 

Contributing to Delinquency of Child 

Crime Against Child 

Debt 



Delinquency 

Disorderly Conduct (a) 

Disorderly House, Inmate of (Munic. Ord. 2019) . 

Extortion By Threats 

Forgery 

Fornication 

Harrison A ct 

House of 111 Fame. Inmate of (Munic. Ord. 2015) . 

House of 111 Fame, Keepers of (111. Statutes 57 
ch. 38) 

House of 111 Fame, Kate Adams Law (111. Statutes 
57 Al ch. 38) 

Imprisonment for Non-Payment of Fines (b) . . . 

Larceny 

Malicious Mischeif 

Manslaughter 

Manslaughter, Accessory to 

Murder 

Murder. Accessory to 

National Prohibition Act 

Obtaining Money or Goods by False Pretense. . 

Obtaining Food and Board by Fraud 

Pandering 

Perjury 

Receiving Stolen Property 

Refusal to Pay Vehicle Bent 

Remand 

Revenue Act — 1918 

Robbery 

Robbery, Accessory to 

Robbery, Attempted 

Safe-Keeping 

Soliciting for Prostitution 

Abortion. Disorderly Conduct 

Assault to Kill, Carrying Concealed Weapons 
Illegal Use of Fire- .Arms 

Assault to Kill, Disorderly Conduct 

Assault to Murder, Larceny 

Assault With Deadly Weapon, Disorderly Con- 
duct 

Assault With Deadly Weapon, Fornication 

Assault With Deadly Weapon, Larceny 

Attempted Burglary. Gambling, Fraudulent Re- 
moval of Warehouse Goods 

Attempted Larceny, Larceny, Disorderly Con- 
duct 

Burglary, Disorderly Conduct 

Burglary, Receiving Stolen Property 

Confidence Game, Conspiracy 

Confidence Game, Disorderly Conduct 

Confidence Game, False Pretense 

Disorderly Conduct, Indecent Exposure 

Disorderly Conduct, Disorderly House, Inmate of 

Disorderly House. Inmate of. Larceny 

Disorderly House, Inmate of, Receiving Stolen 
Property 

Larceny, 3 Charges Under Search & Seizure Act . . 

Remand, Safe-Keeping 

No K eport 



Total 



4. c 6 



1 
1 
6 

1 
3 

11 

1 

11 

3 

6 

1 

23 

1 

1 

2 

3 

1 

1 

13 

F4 

32 

1 

3 

2 

4 



3 
1 
116 
3 
1 
1 
8 
3 
3 
4 
1 
2 
3 
6 
1 

5 

2 

19 

4 

1 

10 

23 

1 

1 
1 
1 

1 
1 
1 



1 
1 
2 

1 
1 
2 
1 

1 
4 

1 

1 

1 

13 



31 



10 

6 

3 

5 

1 

19 

1 

1 

2 

3 

1 

1 

13 

43 

18 

1 

1 

2 

3 

4 



2 
1 
?0 
2 
1 
1 
7 
2 
3 
3 



1 
5 
2 
12 
4 
1 



Number of Arrests Admitted 



108 



25 
9 



24 



28 



10 

1 



18 



More 
Than 6 



No 
P eport 



* Tabulated from the Jailer's Card Becord File. 

(a) Including one charge of Disorderly Conduct under South ParK Ordinance. 

(b) I nder South Park Ordinance 78. 



219 



TABEL B-15 

TABLE SHOWING NUMBER ARRESTS ADMITTED AND AGE. WOMEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL; 

JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1921 









Number of Arrests Admitted 


Age 


Total 




























1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


Over 6 


N.R. 


Total 


486 ^ 


317 


108 


28 


18 


3 


3 


2 


• 7 


17 


2 




2 




















18 


25 


20 


5 






















19 


22 


15 


3 


3 


1 


















20 


23 


19 


3 


1 




















21 


31 


22 


7 


2 




















22 


36 


24 


12 






















23 


29 


19 


8 


1 


1 


















24 


23 


17 


3 


1 


2 


















25 


26 


19 


5 


1 


1 


















26 


28 


20 


5 


2 


1 


















27 


13 


9 


3 






1 














28 


22 


11 


9 


1 


1 
















29 


18 


9 


5 


2 


2 
















30 


14 


11 


1 


1 


1 
















31-35 


65 


41 


15 


8 


1 
















36-40 


54 


33 


11 


1 


3 


2 


2 


2 






41-45 


19 


13 


3 


1 


2 














46-50 


16 


9 


4 


2 


1 
















51-55 


5 


2 




1 


1 






1 










56-60 


2 


2 






















Over 60 


5 


2 


3 




















N.R. 


8 




1 




















7 



220 



TABLE B-16 

PHYSICAL CONDITION OF WOMEN PRISONERS IN COUNTY JAIL 1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 

(Compiled From the Jailer's Annual Reports) 



Physical Record 






Year 






1914 


1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Total Number in Jail 


626 (a) 


730 (a) 


540 


424 


478 






Total 


863 (a) 
1 


1160 (a) 


371 


346 

15 


349 






Skin Disease 








Syphilis 


10 




6 


25 


6 








16 


12 


33 


28 


15 






Tuberculosis 


65 


24 


7 


7 


13 






Heart Affected 


168 


383 


110 


77 


101 






Lungs Affected 


296 


348 


62 


74 


92 






Mentally Deficient 


2 














General Condition Affected 


307 


393 


153 


120 


122 







* Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918, not available. 
(a) These figures are Copied from AnnualJail Keports. 
Classifications are inconsistent. Undoubtedly some prisoners are counted more than once. 



TABLE B-17 
'HABITS" OF WOMEN IN THE COOK COUNTY JAIL. 1911, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 
(Compiled From the Jailer's Annual Reports*) 





1914 


1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Total Number in Jail 


635 (a) 


730 


540 


424 


478 


To a 


467 


613 


220 


110 


236 







Use tobacco 


102 


147 


63 


52 


119 






Use liquor 


331 


447 


144 


44 


62 


Use opium 


10 


3 


5 






Use Morphine 


17 


16 


3 


3 


13 


Use Cocaine 


4 




4 


4 








Use other drugs 


3 




1 


7 


42 



Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918. not available. ... ..„_„. 

(a) This total is taken from the table "Ages" of the annual report as published on page 46 of the Institutional 



Quarterly for March 31, 1916. 



221 



TABLE B-18 
TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF WOMEN ARRESTED IN CHICAGO IN 1921 

By Nativity** 



Nativity 



Total . 






American . . 
Colored 
Austrian. . . 
Bohemian . 
Canadian . . 
Chinese . . . . 

Danes 

English 

French 

German 

Greek 

Hebrew 
Hollander . . 
Hungarian . . 

Irish 

Italian 

Lithuanian . 
Norwegian . . 

Poles 

Roumanian . 

Russia 

Scotch 

Slavish 

Swedish .... 

Swiss 

Others 



Arrests 



10555 



6118 

1965 

89 

76 

16 

2 

12 

29 

25 

151 

18 

76 

2 

56 

160 

171 

165 

'32 

817 

14 

308 

24 

37 

72 

3 

117 



100.0 



58 





19 


.1 





.8 





.7 





.1 





.1 





.3 





2 


1 


4 





2 





7 





5 


1 


5 


1 


6 


1 


5 





3 


7 


7 





1 


2 


9 





2 


0. 


3 


0. 


7 



* Less than one-tenth of one per cent. 
**Figures furnished by Secretary of Police. 



222 



TABLE B-19 

NATIVITY OF WOMEN IN COOK COUNTY JAIL 1914, 1916, 1920, 1921 

(Compiled from Jailer's Annual Reports*) 



Nativity 


1914 


1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Total 


540 (a) 


725 (b) 


541 (C) 


424 


462 (d) 






8 
1 

4 

5 
9 
1 

i 

7 
29 

9 

24 

7 

9 
3 
2 

i6 
3 

26 
2 
5 

3 

i 

8 
357 


6 

4 
9 
1 

8 

io 

4 
30 
1 
1 
3 

36 

8 

15 

1 

6 

23 

25 

22 

6 

1 

5 

1 

2 

2 

8 

i 

486 


22 

i 

5 
1 

2 
4 

5 
15 
2 
2 
2 
1 
12 
6 

' i 

3 

3 

i 

21 

i 

4 
2 

T 
i 

420 


3 

1 

i 
l 

8 

i 

2 
4 
2 
2 
1 
1 
4 
2 

5 
5 

2 
379 


1 
























Canada . 


9 


China ... 




Cuba . . . 


1 






England . . 


J 




I 








5 






Holland 








India .... 






7 


Italy 










1 




2 


Norway 




Poland 


- 


Poland ; Austrian 












Russia 


10 




1 


















Sweden 


o 


Switzerland 




Turkey 




Wales 


1 


Persia 




Native 


40S 



* Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918 are not available. 

(a) Total number of Women received, according to the table "Ages" in the Institution Quarterly March 31. 
1916, p. 46, is 635. Other inconsistencies will be noted, in comparing totals of the various classifications. 

(b) Total number of Women received, according to summary of report, is 730. 

(c) Total number of Women received, according to summary of report, is 540. 

(d) Total number of Women received, according to summary of report, is 478. 



223 



TABLE B-21 
RECORD OF EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN THE COUNTY JAIL 1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 
(Compiled from the Jailer's Annual Reports*) 



Record of Education 


1914 


1916 


1919 


1920 


1921 ,. 


Total 


639 Ga) 


730 


540 


424 


482 (b) 






Public School, first to fourth grade 


97 


146 


61 


54 


33 






Public School, fifth to eighth grade 


346 


3? 6 


402 


313 


308 






High School 


62 


72 


28 


7 


77 






College 


4 


9 


4 


18 


17 






Illiterate 


61 


60 


45 


18 


42 






Catholic Schools 


65 


37 




14 








Foreign Schools 


4 


20 













* Annual Reports for years 1915, 1917, and 1918, not available. 

(a) But total number of women received, according to the table "Ages" of the report as published on page 46 
of the Institution Quarterly for March 31, 1916 is 635. 

(b) Total number of women received is 478. 



324 



TABLE B-22 
RECORD OF OCCUPATION OF WOMEN IN COUNTY JAIL. 1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921 
(Compiled from Jailer's Annual Reports, Typewritten*) 









Year 








1914 


1916 


1919 1 


920 


1921 


Total 


629 (a) 


723 (b) 


540 30 


S (c) 


459 (d) 




Accountant 


2 

" 1 
6 

i 

"7 

7 

262 

22 

2 
118 

49 

"5 
2 
5 
3 
1 

. "2 

4 

3 

38 

"4 
5 

i 

3 
IS 
30 

15 

4 


"i 
'3 

2 

2 
6 

"\2 

12 

257 

'. i 
45 

1 

"i 
1 
3 

176 

"i 

' i 

8 

3 

12 

10 

4 

"2 

6 

45 

"8 
3 
1 
1 
5 
8 
38 
39 
2 


1 

"i 

2 

4 

"9 

i 
34 
11 

76 
2 
2 

28 

2 

208 

1 

2 

2 

20 

3 
1 
1 
9 

i 

i 

1 

10 

13 
"9 

i 
1 

7 

15 

44 

18 

1 


1 
3 

i 
12 

3 

29 
4 
5 

32 
1 

L73 
3 

"5 

11 

6 
4 
2 
6 
2 

5 




Agent, News 

Bell Boy 




Book Binder 


"2 
5 
1 
3 
2 
1 
3 


Book Keeper 


Box Maker 


Candy Maker 


Chauffeur 


Cigar Maker 


Clerk 


15 
7 

32 
1 


Cook 

Dyer, Cleaner 

Elevator Operator 


Engraver 

Factory Hand 


7 


Farmer, Farm Hand 


1 


Florist 

Fortune Teller 




Hair Dresser 

House Wife 


194 




1 


Laundry WorK 


"3 
27 


Machine Hand 


1 


Midwife 

Milliner 




Physician 

Railway Conductor 


3 
9 


Reporter 


1 


Restaurant Proprietor 

Rooming Hnusn Keeper 


1- 


Sales Woman 


3 


Shoemaker 

Stenographer 


20 
1 

7 


Tailor 

Teacher 

Telegraph Operator 


"i 


Telephone Operator 


5 


Theatrical 

Miscellaneous 


8 
40 
27 
22 



* Annual Reports for years 1915. 1917 and 1918, are not available. 

(a) Total number received, according to table "Ages" in the report as published on page 46 of tne Institutional 
Quarterly for March 31, 1916 is 635. 

(b) Total number received, according to summary of report, is 730. 
(p) Total number received, according to summary of report, is 424. 

The absence of entries under letters from R to end of the alphabet seems to indicate that one page of the report 
may be missing. 

(d) Total number received, according to summary of the report, is 478. 



225 



Vii 

ft: 
ii 






























■ 












<S3xniyx 


S"S7> 


c 








































SH3HJ.O TltC' 


o 


I 
it 
























































































Ju3W3iz«ijw; 

■ 


GO 


kJIHJSIW "7t»lV 


p- 


JOj.H?nwTSA'oi/iy 


£ 


•iO 











































kxaixug 3 '5S» 


10 


N3»tnlK3 

Sa awl ui 


i 


-idwajvtfj 


e 


<0 














































'5 










































loaMXs^g 


N 


































•dOWd ^^3^Qls 




j2 
















«i 
2 




















1 


a 
? 

r 
t 




JMIAUMj 


"" 


.LVOM/tS -N%' 


o 


3dH£J 


<5> 












































J 




AJBtUdSNO) 


00 


2 










il 




























t 








asoitow 


t- 


W3O»0w OA'SStf 


(0 


o 










3 






5 






























3WU5 MOD 


10 






Vj 
















2 




















1 






Aiiaaaoj 


* 


A 80 7:9*08 


■ 


J 
































*J 


30CO AXI^ 


Ctf 


hN%3Htil 


^- 


. 


. 






































r 5 






1 


£ 


















































OQ 


























































































i 


















































■i 








V 


















































CO 


















































Q 
















































<\ 


u 












































. 2 




s 


t 










































4 


s 




$ 


1 
5 






































li 

3 




1- 

a 
Q 

1 


c 

lu 




£ 

V 
















































o 




































1 














Vj 




































Ii 


i 
1 
















































c 


i 













^> 










































* 








i/l 










































«1 








111 










































III 


















































VI 


















tr 


















































X 
































£ 


















VI 
































UJ 

s 

111 


or 
ui 

«i 

2 

s 


u ; 

X I 

O 
2 


j 

: 




k 

% 











































at 






s 








<0 


1 .1 

= all 




ui it 


So 




1 


11 ? 






ci- 
Jtfl 


Z 

la 


OS 

z 






3 


53 




h 
o 


Si 










' z 

ff UJ 




CO 

5 


z 


r 

r 


1 


c 

J 


1 


* 


, 


V 

s 

s 



226 






to -P -H 

o +» d 



+> g a 



H 01 3 9 M 






Hi 

"1 



ft 

S3 









to 



V 


1 


<5> 




Si 




v> 




s 




-J 






fe 




<*i 




W 




Hj 




<o 




s 




*> 




»s 




«d 


10 




10 


•>" 


^ 


V 


A 


<* 


^ 


* 




S 


V 




<a 


o>" 




<* 


W 


* 


«5 


^ 


<> 


*} 


K 


«0 



Q 


10 
u 




















. 


v 


is 










$ 
^ 


















































M 










5 


>■ 

>1 

1 

a 

i * 

i 1*1 

N 
N 


£ 


o* 

^ 


1 


si 






«3 








X 








5 


CO 

N 1 


i 

K 


w 

In 


"V. 
0) 
111 

*> 


Vi 

I 


Is 

4 


is 


1 

k 

4 

i 

<* 


1 

*4 

k, 


0) 

8 

N 

k 

N 

5 


k 
5 


<o 
ki 
k: 

■5, 









227 



u 



■a 

a 

» 
a 

•0 



Or 



5 








k 




s 


^ 




H 


^ 




3 


S 


^ 


H 





n 


* 


X 

s 


Hi 






k 

4 



4.1 



di 

^ 



in 

r 



Hi 



10 

k 






^ 



X 



^ 



«i 



W 



^ 



Cs 



&0 



>H 








< 


>h 


1* 


1* 





< 


< 


< 


03 








(-1 


a 


o 


o 


o 


H 


Eh 


H 


H 


H 


o 


Q 


Eh 


l?H 


H 


W 


W 


En 


6 



< 




ci) 


w 


w 


n 




K 


O 


h- 1 






g 


§ 







1? 

o 


£ 






M 

H 


o 

Eh 

< 








J 






^ 










O 






J 


Ph 









228 





It 

S3 
Q 



CO 

* 

o 

(0 























in 

1 












\ 






• 


Hi 


















( 






















Hj 
S 

1 














• 






1 


V 


W 


Ki 


>i 


*i 


<o 


r< 


«i 





229 



a 

3 



CO 



Uj 

z 
vt fc 



Q 

(V 


3 





K 


Cj 


IT 


Uj 


k 


I* 


<0 


>■ 


J 


-j 


cr 


£ 


Ul 


Qi 


-J 



c 
CD 
a 
p< 



I 

1 




















vl kl 

* V? 

5 


















- si 




















1 


18 

'■3 


■ 
















! 


vl 

<3 






































■• 


I 


| 



















230 



